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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



METHODISM AND 
THE NEGRO 



EDITED BY 

I. L. THOMAS, D.D. 




NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 



4 



Copyright, 1910, by 
EATON & MAINS, 



(g,CU280293 




Pioneer Preachers in Colored Conferences 
(For names, see page 9) 






o CONTENTS 

PAG1 

Preface 1 1 

Introduction 15 

PART I 
EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 

True and Tried White Friends 21 

Editor. 

John Stewart 28 

J. H. Fitzwater, D.D. 
Some of the Blessed Men and Women who have 

Labored among Us 34 

Rev. W. H. Logan, D.D. 
What Godly White Men and Women have Done for 

Our People 37 

Rev. E. W. S. Hammond, D.D. 
Sacrifices of White Men and Women for Our People. 40 
Rev. W. C. Thompson, B.D. 

The Negro in the Methodist Episcopal Church 45 

R. S. Thweat. 

Fellowship with Colored People 46 

California Christian Advocate. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Colored 

People 47 

Rev. Edward L. Gilliam, D.D. 
Why the Negro Should be Loyal to the Methodist 

Episcopal Church 51 

Rev. E. H. Oliver, D.D. 
3 



4 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Evidences that the Methodist Episcopal Church is 

Doing a Great Work among the Colored People. 53 
I.— Rev. E. W. S. Peck, D.D. 
II.— Rev. J. C. Houston, D.D. 
The Relation of the Methodist Episcopal Church to 

the Colored People 58 

Editor. 

Pioneers among Us 62 

Rev. W. R. R. Duncan, D.D. 
Self-Sacrificing Colored Men and Women of the 

Church 64 

Rev. J. S. Thomas, A.M. 

Colored Work in White Conferences 66 

Editor. 
Various Movements for the Education of the Negro. . 70 

Rev. M. C. B. Mason, D.D., Ph.D. 
What the Methodist Episcopal Church has Done in 

the Way of Negro Education 73 

I.— R. S. Lovinggood, A.M., Ph.D. 
II.— Rev. S. A. Peeler, D.D. 
What the Methodist Episcopal Church has Done 

Educationally for the Colored Man 79 

Rev. John W. Moultrie, D.D. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Education 

of its Negro Membership 81 

Rev. M. W. Dogan, A.M., Ph.D. 
Meharry Medical College an Important Factor in the 

Solution of the Negro Problem 90 

H. Rogers Williams, M.D. 
What the Woman's Home Missionary Society has 

Done for the Colored Girls 94 

Miss Bessie M. Garrison, A.B. 

The Southwestern Christian Advocate 101 

Editor. 



CONTENTS 5 

PART II 
HIS PRESENT NEED 

PAGE 

Why the Methodist Episcopal Church is Needed 

among Our People 107 

I.— Rev. John W. Robinson, D.D. 
II.— Rev. W. R. Butler, D.D. 
III.— Rev. L. M. Hagood, D.D., M.D. 
IV.— Rev. D. E. Skelton. 
V. — Rev. Joseph Wheeler. 
VI.— Rev. G. W. W. Jenkins, D.D. 
The Missionary Work of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church among the Negro Race 124 

Rev. B. F. Abbott, D.D. 

A Call to Duty 128 

Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, D.D., Ph.D. 

Self -Support Means More Recognition 133 

Editor. 

The Colored Race in America as a Mission Field 135 

Rev. J. S. Todd, D.D. 
The Field for the Methodist Episcopal Church among 

the Colored People in the South 142 

I.— Rev. N. D. Shamborguer, B.S. 
II.— Rev. W. Scott Chinn, A.B. 
III.— Rev. J. S. Thomas, A.M. 
IV.— Rev. N. R. Clay, A.M., D.D. 
V.— Rev. J. L. Wilson, D.D. 

Information from the District Superintendents 157 

Editor. 
The Negro's Need of Increased Help from the Church, 

and Why ? 1 60 

Editor. 

Our Young People and Their Religious Training 163 

Rev. C. C. Jacobs, D.D. 

Where are Your Boys ? 1 66 

Mrs. Mattie Can* Chavis, A.M. 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Duty of Parents in the Home and the Rearing 

of Children <. . . . 1 74 

Mrs. Amanda Mashan. 
Business Methods in Church Finances 177 

Editor. 
Ministerial Support 179 

Mrs. Mary F. Dent. 
Ministerial Qualification 181 

Editor. 
How to Know the Real Condition of Our People in 

the South 183 

Rev. J. Will Jackson, D.D. 

PART III 

THE OUTLOOK FOR FURTHER ENDEAVOR 

The Great Harvest to be Gathered 189 

Editor. 
The Future of the Negro in the Methodist Episcopal 

Church 192 

Rev. J. Mercer Johnson, D.D. 
The Outlook of the Methodist Episcopal Church 

among the Colored People 196 

I.— Rev. J. E. Bryant, D.D. 
II.— Rev. D. G. Franklin, D.D. 
III.— Rev. H. B. Hart, D.D. 
IV.— Rev. H. B. T. Walker, D.D. 
V. — Rev. Freeman Parker, D.D. 
VI.— Rev. G. H. Lennon. 

The Future Outlook for the Black Man 211 

Rev. P. J. Maveety, D.D. 
How to Gather the Four Millions of Our Young 

People who are Out of Christ 214 

I.— Rev. E. B. Borroughs, A.M., D.D. 
II.— Editor. 

III.— Rev. B. Mack Hubbard, D.D. 
IV.— Rev. Daniel W. Shaw, D.D. 



CONTENTS 7 

PAGE 

How Can We Best Utilize the Young People in the 
Interest of Home Missions and Church Ex- 
tension? 233 

Miss Ida R. Cummings. 
The Condition of Our Sunday School Work 238 

Editor. 
The Ep worth League in Our Colored Conferences .... 240 

Editor. 
What Can be Done to Save Our Girls from Going 

Astray? 243 

Mrs. Florence Dungee-Carroll, A.B. 
The City Problem Touching Our People 247 

Rev. M. J. Naylor, D.D. 
Difficulties of Home Missionary Effort among Ne- 
groes in Northern Cities 251 

Rev. W. C. Stovall, M.A., B.D. 
The Importance of Self-Support 259 

Rev. M. W. Clair, D.D., Ph.D. 
Why We Should Do More for the Benevolences 264 

Rev. E. M. Jones, D.D. 
Does the Investment Pay Made by the Church in the 

Negro Race? 267 

Editor. 
Bishop Quayle and His Colored Brethren 269 

Bishop Quayle. 
The Morning Cometh 275 

Rev. Ward Piatt, D.D. 
The Right of the Negro to be Respectable and Re- 
spected 279 

Central Christian Advocate. 
Why Success has been Meager in Some Mission 

Fields 282 

Editor. 
Success in Spite of Opposition 285 

Editor. 
Evangelizing Forces among Our Young People 287 

I. Garland Penn, A.M., Litt.D. 



8 CONTENTS 

PAGB 

The Colored Membership Against the Saloon 290 

R. S. Lovinggood, A.M., Ph.D. 
Why Improve the Parsonage? 293 

Southwestern Christian Advocate. 
Leaders for the Negro Race 295 

W. P. Thirkield, D.D., LL.D. 
Practical Suggestions toward Material Progress 297 

Rev. C. A. Tindley, D.D. 
Illiterate and Shiftless Negroes — the Cause and 

Remedy 305 

Mrs. Emma J. Truxon. 
The Colored Members and Distinctively Colored 

Denominations - 310 

Editor. 
The Preacher's Rights 312 

Southwestern Christian Advocate. 
Our System of Morality — Is it Peculiar? 314 

Rev. W. H. Nelson, D.D. 

APPENDIX 

The Woman's Home Missionary Society 321 

The Work of the Freedmen's Aid Society 322 

Official Information 32$ 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Pioneer Preachers in Colored Conferences .... Frontispiece 
First row, across : Rev. N. M. Carroll, D.D., Wash- 
ington; Rev. H. W. Key, D.D., Tennessee; Rev. 
E. W. S. Peck, D.D., Washington; Rev. Pierre 
Landry, D.D., Louisiana. Second row : Rev. 
Robert Smith, North Carolina; Rev. Edward Lee, 
Texas; Rev. A. R. Melton, Atlanta; Rev. Daniel 
Brooks, North Carolina. Third row : Rev. Jeffrey 
Grant, Florida; Rev. R. E. Gillum, D.D., Central 
Missouri; Rev. K Nelson, Central Alabama; Rev. 
J. E. Wilson, D.D., South Carolina. Fourth row: 
Rev. Joseph Courtney, D.D., Lexington; Rev. J. 
M. Shumpert, D.D., Mississippi; Rev. Moses 
Adams, Upper Mississippi; Rev. Harry Swann, 
West Texas. 

Group i Facing page 28 

Bishop I. B. Scott, D.D., LL.D., Rev. M. C. B. 
Mason, D.D., Ph.D., Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, 
D.D., Ph.D., Rev. R. E. Jones, D.D. 

Group 2 48 

Rev. I. L. Thomas, D.D., Rev. C. C. Jacobs, D.D., 
I. Garland Penn, A.M., Litt.D., Rev. E. M. 
Jones, D.D. 

Group 3 64 

Rev. J. P. Wragg, D.D., Rev. W. H. Logan, D.D., 

M. S. Davage, A.M., Rev. W. W. Lucas, D.D. 

Sharp Street Memorial Church, Baltimore, Maryland . . 80 

Group 4 96 

Rev. H. A. Monroe, D.D., Rev. C. A. Tindley, 
D.D., Rev. G. W. Arnold, A.M., D.D., Rev. B. 
Mack Hubbard, D.D. 

9 



io ILLUSTRATIONS 

Wiley University, Marshall, Texas Facing page 1 16 

Group 5 136 

Rev. M. W. Dogan, Ph.D., Rev. J. M. Cox, D.D., 

Rev. S. A. Peeler, D.D., J. B. F. Shaw, Ph.D. 

Gammon Theological Seminary, South Atlanta, Georgia. 152 

Group 6 172 

Rev. W. H. Brooks, D.D., Rev. Ernest Lyon, D.D., 
Rev. E. W. S. Hammond, D.D., Rev. E. A. 
White, D.D. 

Group 7 194 

R. B. McRary, A.M., Hon. George L. Knox, Solo- 
mon Houston, John Henry Smith. 

Union Memorial Church, Saint Louis, Missouri 212 

Group 8 232 

Mrs. G. R. Strickland, Mrs. Emma C. White, Miss 
Bessie M. Garrison, A.B., Mrs. Rosa Simpson. 

Group 9 252 

R. S. Lovinggood, Ph.D., E. H. McKissack, A.M., 
R. L. Smith, A.M., LL.B., J. E. McGirt, A.B. 
Class of 1909, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, 

Tennessee 272 

Group 10 292 

Emmett J. Scott, A.M., William L. Bulkley, Ph.D., 
H. Roger Williams, M.D., L. J. Price, A.M. 

Group 11 312 

Rev. E. B. Burroughs, D.D., S. D. Redmond, M.D., 
R. F. Boyd, A.M., M.D., Frank Trigg, A.M. 



PREFACE 

The history of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is of universal character. Her work has 
been world-wide, touching all parts of this great 
globe with her Christianizing power and uplift- 
ing effect. All nations, races, and peoples have 
come under the scope of her influence. Yet 
with all her efforts in foreign fields the Church 
has never forsaken or neglected those who were 
right at her door. Perhaps the greatest oppor- 
tunity which the Church has had for home mis- 
sionary work was produced by the Emancipation 
Proclamation, which put at her very feet four 
million ignorant slaves, who knew little or noth- 
ing of the true principles of the Christian re- 
ligion. 

How the Church availed herself of this op- 
portunity is too well known to rehearse here, but 
rather the purpose of this book is to give a some- 
what detailed account and review of the work 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church among these 
four million slaves. 

The immediate cause of this effort, however, 
was a request by Dr. Robert Forbes, correspond- 
ing secretary of the Board of Home Missions and 



12 PREFACE 

Church Extension, who felt that some first-hand 
literature should be brought to the attention of 
the reading public of the Church concerning the 
work that was actually going on among the col- 
ored membership and concerning the points of 
view held by the prominent colored members in 
regard to the work of the Church among the 
race. Accordingly, articles on pertinent subjects 
were solicited and compiled. A number of the 
prominent men of the Church, seeing the com- 
piled matter, were very outspoken in their opinion 
that it ought to be in every home, both white and 
colored, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
that it would be doubly inspiring. To the white 
membership it would show that the money and 
effort spent for the Negro were not in vain; to 
the colored membership it should mean the en- 
couragement and stimulation to even greater ac- 
complishment in the future. 

Said matter having been duly submitted, we 
now offer our sincere thanks to Dr. Forbes and 
the Board of Home Missions and Church Ex- 
tension for this enlarged book, containing articles 
by leaders in the work in the various fields, which 
we beg to offer for your consideration. We trust 
that the matter herein submitted will do some 
good in bringing about a more intelligent under- 
standing between the Church and her colored 
members. 



PREFACE 13 

The illustrations in the book comprise cuts of 
some of the prominent colored men and women, 
for the most part products of the Church's effort 
in the South for their uplift, of great churches 
which testify to their struggle to help themselves, 
and of well-equipped institutions of learning, rep- 
resenting large contributions of the white friends 
and the sacrifices of the colored members. We 
trust that these may in a concrete way bring to 
the minds of the people some definite idea of the 
character and amount of work accomplished by 
the colored membership in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. 

In behalf of the Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension I am permitted the privilege 
of expressing grateful appreciation for the aid so 
kindly given me, for the articles so generously 
contributed, and the photographs so graciously 
loaned. 

Editor. 



INTRODUCTION 

The greatest problem of the world to-day is 
the problem of sin. The key to its solution is 
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. The 
divinely instituted agency for the working out 
of the problem is the Church. 

The problem appears with many phases, and 
these have relative importance according to the 
viewpoint of the observer. One lays emphasis 
upon the subjective phase of the problem, an- 
other upon the objective. One will deal with 
the proximate, another with the ultimate. One 
will give attention to the root and essence of 
evil, another will study its fruit. One will be 
led to consider the theoretic, another the prac- 
tical. One will feel called to the work of the 
agitator whose message is like the clanging of 
a great alarm, which compels attention and leaves 
action to the care of those who are awakened 
and aroused; another will feel the throb of the 
prophetic passion, and with a burning heart will 
set the picture of the things that are, in contrast 
with the brighter picture of the kingdom as God 
means it to be. 

In the great program there will be a place for 
*5 



16 INTRODUCTION 

the schoolmaster, the reformer, the preacher of 
righteousness, for dreamer and doer. All must 
work together if the consummate purpose is to 
be brought out. 

But instrumentally the hope of the world is 
the Church of Christ. Her message will be the 
surest protection against the aberration of fanati- 
cism. Hers is the task of holding before men's 
eyes things in their true proportion and perspec- 
tive. She may not always feel herself called to 
deal directly with the details of the problem in 
every phase, but she must train the lives that 
will. 

The agitation which is to be reckoned on to 
disturb slumberous complacency and arouse self- 
ish indifference must have in it some recollection 
of Sinai with its divinely laid foundations of 
righteousness, its reverberating warnings of di- 
vine wrath. The only gospel which promises 
the righting of every wrong, the composure of 
all unrest, is the gospel of the Son of God. A 
gospel which loses sight of Calvary may for a 
time serve to soothe, but sooner or later is bound 
to end in disappointment. The gospel of Jesus 
of Nazareth, published by the Church and illus- 
trated in her life, is the gospel for our times. 
Every wisely spoken word which helps to hold 
first things in their rightful place is to be wel- 
comed. Every utterance which accentuates the 



INTRODUCTION 17 

vital importance of the gospel and the Church 
in the scheme of the world's betterment, or which 
in making simpler the task of the Church adds 
to her efficiency, is a distinct contribution to the 
wholesome literature of the age. 

The work held in the reader's hand deals with 
the problem of the Church. The author sees that 
there are wrongs to be righted, therefore battles 
to be fought, hence an army to be disciplined 
and inspired. He believes in the Church. Hers 
is the army. The great Commander is her cap- 
tain ; hers the obligation, the resource, the oppor- 
tunity, the hope. He believes in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and in this there is little 
chance for wonder, for he was converted at her 
altar, was educated in her schools, has been given 
a place in her ministry, more than once has been 
honored with a seat in her governing body, the 
General Conference, and is to-day more highly 
honored as a representative of one of her great- 
est organizations, the Board of Home Missions 
and Church Extension. 

Of the colored race, he has, by the providence 
of life, had abundant opportunity to study the 
details of religious activity under those condi- 
tions which must be mastered if the worker is to 
succeed. The methods which he recommends 
are those which have been tried and approved in 
his own busy and successful pastorates. 



18 INTRODUCTION 

His own observations are supplemented with 
special chapters by others of experience and abil- 
ity. We believe that the general and careful 
reading of this book by those for whom especially 
it was written, the sympathetic consideration of 
the views herein expressed, the adoption and per- 
sistent application of the methods herein pro- 
posed, must surely result in the extension of the 
kingdom and the greater glory of the King. For 
the sake of the author, but far more for the 
sake of the Church and those whom she seeks 
to serve, we bespeak for the book a generous 
welcome, a wide and considerate reading. 

L. B. Wilson. 

1026 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



PART I 
EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 



TRUE AND TRIED WHITE FRIENDS 

BY THE EDITOR 

Prominent in the efforts of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church to better the condition of the 
Negro of this country, certain blessed men and 
women stand out because of sacrifices made by 
them for the Negro, and for their willingness 
to extend to him what centuries of opportunity 
and Christian culture had given to them. Let 
us now endeavor to bear fruit in the Church 
sufficient to demonstrate to the world that the 
suffering, humiliation, and deprivation endured 
by our white friends who had faith in our future 
have not been exercised in vain. 

We can only mention the names of a few of 
the noble characters who have been conspicuous 
before the Church and contributed long and 
efficient service in our elevation. 

Bishop J. M. Walden, D.D., was the first sec- 
retary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, and from 
its very beginning to the present he has been 
officially connected with this work. Truly has 
this man of God devoted his life to the cause of 
education among our people. Walden Univer* 

21 



22 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

sity, at Nashville, Tennessee, is named in honor 
of the faithful services of Bishop Walden. 

Rev. Dr. R. S. Rust, of sainted memory, was 
a hero for our cause. He was a great pioneer 
in the education of the black man, beginning his 
work in that line as the first president of Wilber- 
force University, which at that time was under 
the Cincinnati Conference; later the school was 
transferred to the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church. For many years this hero of God was 
the secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, 
having the entire work under his care and super- 
vision. Rust University, Holly Springs, Missis- 
sippi, is named in honor of Dr. Rust. 

Dr. John Braden was also among the first to 
enter the work among the freedmen. He was 
the first president of the Central Tennessee Col- 
lege, now Walden University, at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee. He was at the head of this institution 
for more than thirty years. No more unselfish 
life has been laid on the altar for the sake of 
humanity and a downtrodden race. In this work 
he was a hero. His wife was associated with 
him in his early years of service, and his daugh- 
ter, Miss M. E. Braden, is still connected with 
the school which her father loved and served so 
long. 

Dr. G. W. Hubbard, dean of Meharry College, 
Nashville, Tennessee, has endeared himself to 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 23 

our people all over this country. Young men 
and women who are making a mark in their 
profession owe much to this great man. Long 
may he live ! 

Bishop D. W. Clark did great things for the 
education of our people. He secured the four 
hundred acres of land for Clark University and 
founded this great institution. In honor of his 
noble work the university bears his name. 

We next mention Bishop I. W. Wiley, who 
did much for the people in Texas. Wiley Uni- 
versity, at Marshall, Texas, is named in mem- 
ory of him because of the timely service he 
rendered it. 

Bishop Edward Thomson was the pioneer 
bishop in establishing our Methodism in Louisi- 
ana. 

Bishop J. P. Newman did nobly for our Meth- 
odism in New Orleans. The establishment of 
the New Orleans University was largely the re- 
sult of his labors. He was the first editor of the 
Southwestern Christian Advocate. 

Bishop Gilbert Haven was a hero in the inter- 
est of our people. His memory will ever be 
cherished. He was a true friend of humanity; 
he championed our cause and won for us many 
loyal friends. Haven Academy, at Waynesboro, 
Georgia, bears his name. 

Bishop J. C. Hartzell cast his lot with his 



24 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

colored brethren in Louisiana in young man- 
hood, and he never left them until the Church 
consecrated him as Bishop for Africa. He 
loved his colored brethren, stood by them, and 
still labors with them in foreign fields. 

Bishop Henry W. Warren was the agency God 
used to reach Rev. E. H. Gammon, thereby mak- 
ing Gammon Theological Seminary possible. In 
securing the establishment of this great institu- 
tion he merits our undying gratitude. 

Bishop W. F. Mallalieu has stood by our peo- 
ple and has been persecuted at times for his 
loyalty to the interest of the race. 

Bishop D. A. Goodsell lived in the South 
longer than any other of our bishops. His ex- 
perience there enabled him to be in fullest sym- 
pathy with our struggling people. 

Bishop J. W. Hamilton has been uncompro- 
mising throughout the Church in his advocacy 
for most liberal help for his colored brethren. 

Rev. E. H. Gammon founded and heavily en- 
dowed Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, 
Georgia, for the purpose of educating colored 
men for the Christian ministry. Already sev- 
eral hundred have graduated and gone out to 
preach the gospel at home and abroad among our 
people in fields within the bounds of the various 
denominations. The entire race owes gratitude 
to this remarkable man of God. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 25 

The Meharry brothers founded Meharry 
Medical College at Nashville, Tennessee, to pre- 
pare colored men for physicians among their 
own people. The college has been as broad as 
the race, and over seven hundred young men and 
women have graduated in medicine from this 
noted institution. 

Dr. John F. Goucher, of Baltimore, has con- 
tributed more than sixty thousand dollars toward 
the education of our people, and gives a large 
sum annually. Long may he live to help to lift 
up a struggling people ! 

Dr. Judson S. Hill has contributed service 
among our people that can never be estimated. 
Morristown Industrial College, at Morristown, 
Tennessee, which institution he founded, and of 
which he is still president, will be a monument to 
his memory. 

Dr. W. P. Thirkield was the first president 
of Gammon Theological Seminary. His labors 
were abundant in the interest of our people for 
more than twenty years. He was a fearless ad- 
vocate during his many years in the South for 
fair play in opportunity and treatment. He is 
now at Howard University, at the capital of the 
nation, making the same plea. 

Standing out in the galaxy of great heroes for 
the race is Rev. Alfred Cookman. The institu- 
tion in Jacksonville, Florida, stands in honor of 



26 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

his memory, and commemorates the great work 
which this man of God did among our people in 
Florida. 

Dr. L. M. Dunton has done marvelous things 
for our race. His untiring efforts have made 
possible the great Claflin University, of which he 
is president. Generations will rise up and call 
him blessed. 

Mrs. R. B. Hayes was the promoter of the 
Woman's Home Missionary Society. This work 
was started in the South to train girls in domestic 
economy. The outcome of this movement con- 
ceived by Mrs. Hayes is sixteen homes where 
hundreds of our girls are being prepared for the 
duties of womanhood. 

Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk is one of the best friends 
we have had, and has done a great work for the 
uplift of our girls. She was one of the pioneers 
in the work of the Woman's Home Missionary 
Society. 

The ministers and laymen of the Texas Con- 
ference will long remember the name of Rev. 
F. C. Moore, who established Wiley University, 
at Marshall, Texas. 

The name of the Rev. George Standing is a 
household name among our people in Georgia. 
He endured all kinds of humiliations and threats. 

Miss Flora Mitchell, of Thayer Home, At- 
lanta, Georgia ; Mrs. H. M. Nasmyth, of Adeline 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 27 

Smith Home, Little Rock, Arkansas ; Miss Rose 
T. Robertson, of King Home, Marshall, Texas; 
Miss Viola E. Baldwin, of Haven Home, Savan- 
nah, Georgia; Miss Alice B. Dole, of Allen In- 
dustrial Home, at Asheville, North Carolina, with 
a number of other blessed women, have stood 
by our people unflinchingly. God bless them ! 

Rev. A. S. Lakin was the first white man to 
come to Alabama from the New York Confer- 
ence, and he came to Alabama and organized the 
Methodist Episcopal Church at Huntersville, 
Alabama. He was often shot at by Kuklux, and 
mobbed more than once. Rev. J. T. Parker 
came at nearly the same time, and was treated in 
the same way, but remained in the work. Next 
came Rev. O. R. Franklin, who left the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, South, and remained in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church among Negroes 
until he died at Birmingham, and was buried by 
the hands of the Negro ministers of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, while his own race re- 
fused to have anything to do with him or for him 
in his sickness and death. Next came Rev. J. 
M. Joiner and his wife, both English. This 
brother was a pastor among colored people, was 
frequently beaten, mobbed, and likewise his good 
wife, and when asked by the mob if he would go 
away and not preach to the Negroes any more, he 
would never consent. When threatened with 



28 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

death, he would say he would rather die than 
stop preaching to the Negroes. He did die, and 
so did his wife, in one of the humblest appoint- 
ments of the Conference, and was buried by the 
black hands that stood by him in all his suffer- 
ings. Rev. Wesley Prettyman was for many 
years a missionary in Bulgaria. After returning 
to the United States he transferred from the 
Ohio Conference to the Central Alabama, and, 
while persecuted daily by his own race, he re- 
mained on the field till he was superannuated. 
Living a few years longer, he died among his 
colored brethren, at Athens, Alabama, and was 
carried for interment back to Baltimore, to be 
buried among loved ones who had gone before 
him. 



JOHN STEWART 

BY THE REV. J. H. FITZWATLR, D.D. 

John Stewart was born in Powhatan 
County, Virginia, and was the son of free colored 
parents. He received his religious training from 
his parents, and attended winter school, so that 
by the time he reached the age of twenty-one he 
was honest, industrious, and capable of making 
a living. 

He left his home at this time, however, to 




Group i 



Bishop I. B. Scott, D.D., LL.D. 
Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, D.D., Ph.D. 



Rev. 
Rev. 



M. C. B. Mason, D.D., Ph.D. 
R. E. Jones, D.D. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 29 

make his way in the world, but after a time 
met with misfortunes, became discouraged, and 
finally, drunken and dissolute, drifted to Mari- 
etta, Ohio, in his wanderings. He was thor- 
oughly converted, and became as fervent in piety 
as he had hitherto been idle and wicked. He 
united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

As was the custom of many of the devoutly 
religious of those days, he was in the habit of 
retiring to the fields or woods for meditation and 
prayer. On one of these occasions, while pray- 
ing in a grove, he says, "I heard a voice like a 
woman's singing and praising the Lord, while 
straight from the northern sky, which was filled 
with a great radiance, came a man's voice saying, 
'You must declare my counsel faithfully,' and I 
found myself standing on my feet speaking as 
to a congregation." 

He was impressed that this was a call to go to 
the Northwest and preach the gospel to the hated, 
despised Indian. He at first resisted the influ- 
ence and resolved, Jonah-like, to flee, making 
preparations to go to Kentucky. Being stayed 
from this, however, by a serious illness coming 
on at this time, he resolved as soon as able to 
obey what he firmly believed to be a call to a 
special field of labor. 

When he recovered he again heard the voices, 
and, overcoming his fears and the persuasion of 



30 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

friends, he took his knapsack and started upon 
his perilous journey. In his own words, "When 
I set off I was very happy, and steered my course 
sometimes by the road, sometimes through the 
woods, until I came to Goshen, where I found 
the Delaware Indians." He preached to them 
and sang hymns to their great delight, and think- 
ing he had performed his duty prepared to return 
to Marietta. Again he heard voices calling from 
the Northwest, and again he took up his lonely 
pilgrimage. 

Now he comes upon a settlement of whites 
who receive him gladly and hear his message with 
joy. There were conversions, and organizing a 
class he proceeds upon his way until he reaches 
Upper Sandusky, the home of the Wyandot In- 
dians. They had the pagan practices and vices 
of heathen people, and, added to these, the white 
traders sold them liquor and there was much 
drunkenness among them. The Roman Cath- 
olics had tried unsuccessfully to Christianize 
them, but had only succeeded in implanting a 
prejudice against other religious teachers. This, 
then, suggests some of the difficulties John Stew- 
art found awaiting him in his new field of labor. 

He found the house of William Walker, the 
government agent, who lived among the Indians, 
and who disregarded his teachings at first, but 
who was later converted. He held several sue- 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 31 

cessful meetings at Sandusky, where the Indians 
lived. 

As is usual, opposition was aroused among the 
irreligious. The white traders, who prospered 
by their debasing business of furnishing the In- 
dians with liquor, objected to the teaching of the 
Methodist preacher, and used every device to 
make his efforts of no effect. The Indians under 
the Roman Catholic influence declared that Stew- 
art was no priest and had not the right Bible. 
In this the Indian agent, Walker, came to his as- 
sistance, assuring them that the only difference 
between a Catholic and Protestant Bible was that 
one was translated in Latin and the other in 
English; that any man had a right to persuade 
others to be religious if he cared to, and that the 
Methodist hymns were all right and good. 

Mononcue, one of the most powerful chiefs, 
was most bitter in his opposition, reluctant to 
give up the faith of his ancestors. He declared 
that Stewart's religion was for the white man 
only, as God had given the Book to him, and the 
Indian's religion was given to him also by the 
Great Spirit. Very fervently Stewart labored 
to impress him with the divine commission of 
Christ to "go into all nations and preach to all 
people," finally succeeding in convincing him 
and having the joy of seeing not only Mononcue, 
but Hicks, Between-the-logs, Sumnumdewat, 



32 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Scutash, Robert Armstrong, and other chiefs 
and eminent men of the tribe among his first 
converts. 

Stewart's success so enraged his opposers that 
they resolved upon a great thanksgiving feast and 
dance as a national celebration. Stewart was in- 
vited, and had the grief of seeing his late con- 
verts among those engaged in the heathenish 
festivities. He now felt discouraged, and re- 
solved to return to Marietta. He preached his 
farewell sermon, and parted from them, much to 
their sorrow. 

John Stewart, however, was not permitted to 
forsake entirely these children of the wilderness ; 
after an absence of a few months he returned to 
Upper Sandusky to take up what proved to be 
his lifework with the Wyandot Nation. He was 
received with joy, and again the Word as he be- 
lieved it was blessed and men turned to the Lord. 
His work was growing on his hands, and he ap- 
pealed to the Ohio Conference for helpers. The 
session of the Conference meeting in Urbana, 
March, 1819, granted him license to preach. 

In 1 82 1 J. B. Finley was appointed to take up 
his work. He organized a class of twenty-three. 
Finley labored to promote their industrial train- 
ing by erecting a sawmill and securing a farm 
one mile square, where the Indians were taught 
agriculture. A log church was built, which was 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 33 

also used for school purposes. Miss Harriet 
Stubbs, sister-in-law of Judge McLean, offered 
her services and was soon installed as teacher of 
the Indian women and girls. The school was 
continued while the Indians were in Ohio, and 
was the beginning of woman's home missionary 
work. 

An appeal was sent out which resulted in the 
organization of the Missionary Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819 in New 
York city. 

In 1822 Bishop McKendree visited the Wy- 
andot Mission and found it in a prosperous con- 
dition. The church membership numbered two 
hundred natives, who had renounced heathenism 
and embraced the Christian religion and were 
showing by exemplary lives the sincerity of their 
profession. 

At this time Stewart's health was failing; 
worn out by excessive labor and exposure, he 
wasted away and was apparently near his end. 
He was comforted by the thought that the people 
he loved would be cared for by the Church, and 
to the last he was their trusted pastor and friend. 
He died on the 17th of December, 1823, his hand 
in the hand of his faithful wife, and his last 
words addressed to the sorrowing people about 
his bed, "O, be faithful !" 



34 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

SOME OF THE BLESSED MEN AND 

WOMEN WHO HAVE LABORED 

AMONG US 

BY THE REV. W. H. LOGAN, D.D. 

In 1865 ^e Rev. Joseph Welsh introduced 
the old "mother" Church in South Texas, organ- 
izing societies in Galveston, Houston, Richmond, 
Lagrange, San Antonio, Hallettsville, Gonzales, 
Austin, Hempstead, Brenham, and Navasota. 
He found such heroes among the colored breth- 
ren as Elias Dibble, founder and first pastor of 
Trinity Church, Houston, who served the full 
term of three years; B. F. Williams had estab- 
lished a society at Columbus, Isaac Wright at 
Austin, Larken Carper at San Antonio, V. M. 
Cole at Lagrange, Austin Lockhart at Waco, B. 
O. Waters at Brenham. And thus Brother 
Welsh was aided just from the fields and from 
behind the plow handles, but these were never- 
theless "mighty through God to the pulling down 
of strongholds." 

Later Brother Welsh was joined by the Revs. 
G. W. Herney, W. R. Fayle, William Brush, T. 
T. Leake, F. C. Moore, S. M. Brock, and others 
who in cooperation with the colored brethren 
above mentioned spread the work so rapidly over 
the State that within three or four years after 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 35 

the emancipation the grand old Methodist Epis- 
copal Church had societies in all the principal 
centers in the State, including Marshall, Jeffer- 
son, Tyler, Quitman, Mineola, Paris, Clarksville, 
Fairfield, San Augustine, Huntsville, Millican, 
Anderson, and many interior points. 

While Brother Welsh and the other white 
brethren were at work organizing churches and 
preaching to the ex-slaves, such godly women as 
Sisters Knapp, I. R. Howells, Isabel R. Coe, 
and Mrs. George W. Richardson were at work 
in the schoolroom, teaching the children who 
were to be the future preachers, teachers, moth- 
ers, fathers, and representatives in the various 
walks of life. 

In East and Northeast Texas there grew up 
among us men of own making who were great 
workers, many of them good men and splendid 
preachers, namely, Daniel Battle at Paris, Cosum 
Luster at Jefferson, Walter Ripetoe, Elijah Blair, 
and Paul Douglass at Marshall, and many others. 
There was a younger set of men, successors to 
the fathers, who did great things for God and 
the Church, namely, C. L. Madison, Mack Hen- 
son, R. R. Roberts, Peter Morgan, Taylor Moore, 
John Jackson, I. B. Scott (now Bishop to 
Africa), Harry Swann, C. C. Minnegan, C. P. 
Westbrooks, who wrought nightly to cultivate 
the fields which the fathers had cleared and 



S6 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

builded. Only a few of that long list remain 
among us, for most of them are "fallen asleep," 
but to say that they gave a good account of 
themselves is expressing it mildly. 

Rev. F. Carson Moore established Wiley Uni- 
versity and was its first president. The school 
was the first of the kind established by any 
Church in the State for the Christian education 
of our people, and to it went many of the men 
and women of all the Churches. Its alumni and 
undergraduates are doing well in every vocation, 
calling, and profession. One cannot meet the ex- 
students of this school without being impressed 
with the class of work it has been doing for the 
forty years of its establishment. The school has 
had seven presidents, namely, F. C. Moore, W. 
H. Davis, N. D. Clifford, George Whitaker, P. 
A. Cool, I. B. Scott, and W. H. Logan, the pres- 
ent incumbent. The last two are colored, while 
the first five are white men. It is to this school 
that Miss Isabel R. Coe came as its first precep- 
tress, to whose memory her father has given 
five thousand dollars to assist in the erection of 
a boys' dormitory, now in course of erection. 
There is also a school at Austin, Texas, located 
within the bounds of the West Texas Confer- 
ence; it was established in 1900, and has the 
second largest enrollment of any college in the 
State. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 37 

Wiley University and Samuel Huston College, 
presided over by Professor R. S. Lovinggood, 
A.M., are splendid educational plants well located 
and doing a great work. Wiley has outdone 
itself in buildings during the twelve years of 
President Logan's incumbency, there having been 
erected a girls' dormitory, president's home, and 
industrial plant where the industrial arts are 
taught, a hospital and several teachers' cottages, 
and a library, the gift of Mr. Carnegie. 

The schools, the churches, some few of them 
considered great among our people, the home 
life, moral and religious, the splendid example 
in all vocations in Texas, irrespective of denomi- 
nations, were made possible by the workers of 
the old Church sent to the field immediately after 
the war between the States. Who can tell what 
the achievements will be fifty years hence? 



WHAT GODLY WHITE MEN AND 

WOMEN HAVE DONE FOR 

OUR PEOPLE 

BY THE REV. E. W. S. HAMMOND, D.D. 

As we look back over a half century and note 
the progress made by our people along the lines 
of intellectual, social, moral, spiritual, and ma- 



38 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

terial progress we are led to exclaim, "What hath 
God wrought !" Surely the agencies used in the 
accomplishment of this great work have been 
fully indicated in a movement without a parallel 
in the world's history. 

Fifty years ago more than four millions of our 
people were in bondage. Emancipation brought 
new conditions which appalled the nation. It 
was a condition of citizenship, with phases never 
before considered by the great American people. 
It meant the training of a race for the proper 
exercise of the rights, dignities, and responsi- 
bilities of citizenship. 

Here Christian philanthropy had its first and 
greatest opportunity to meet the vast social, 
moral, and spiritual wants of the heathen at our 
doors. Thoughtful people saw that the masses 
of illiterate freedmen invested with the rights of 
citizenship, if educated and properly qualified to 
a proper recognition of these sovereign rights, 
might buttress the walls of our temple of liberty, 
but if left in ignorance would, in some moment 
when the beams were at equipoise, pull the fair 
fabric to the ground. 

It was at this auspicious moment when the 
godly white men and women of our land recog- 
nized the dire necessity, and inspired by the 
words of the Master, "Greater love hath no man 
than this, that a man lay down his life for his 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 39 

friends," left their homes, often severing forever 
family ties, companionships, and relationships. 
"God's best," actuated not by sordid or merce- 
nary motives, not seeking the emoluments that 
might accrue, but seizing the priceless opportu- 
nity, ere the smoke of battle had cleared away, 
were on the field ready for service. That service 
has gone down in history, and constitutes a record 
which for heroic service, devotion in behalf of an 
emancipated race, is without parallel in the his- 
tory of Christian philanthropy. 

Nor has this unparalleled sacrifice ceased. 
There are still with us a few noble souls who 
heeded the first call for volunteers in behalf of 
the f reedmen. They have grown old in the serv- 
ice, and some of them bear the scars of the 
mighty conflict of public opinion and sentiment. 
Suffering at times for righteousness' sake, they 
stood, "Godlike with native honor clad," by their 
convictions and by the nation's wards. 

Others have come into the field* later on, but 
are no less devoted to the work of uplifting our 
people, and their work is surely winning the ad- 
miration and respect of all good people. There 
are others of this same godly sort from the best 
Christian homes and institutions of our land who 
have offered themselves as volunteers to work in 
this great field, which is "already white to the 
harvest." 



40 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Verily, Ethiopia in America stretches out her 
hands unto God, while tens of thousands of 
"princes unto God," crowned by the heroic ex- 
amples and devotion of these friends of ours, 
have "come out of this Egypt" to join hands in 
the work of uplifting the untouched, unsaved, 
and unchurched millions of our "brothers in 
black" in this great Southland. 

We honor the memory of these godly white 
men and women who have given their lives to 
this work, and while the sacred ashes of some of 
them sleep in our sunny Southland we shall be 
inspired by the thought that they are yet with us, 
and shall see that their graves are kept green. 

Let no one call a halt in this great forward 
movement. The Master calls for men, and for 
women, who like himself will be willing "to lay 
down their lives for their friends." 



SACRIFICES OF WHITE MEN AND 
WOMEN FOR OUR PEOPLE 

BY THE REV. W. C. THOMPSON, B.D. 

The subject is so broad, so deep, and so far- 
reaching that it is almost impossible to even 
make a creditable reference to it in the space al- 
lotted to me. Were I to acknowledge the per- 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 41 

sonal benefits that have come to me through 
good white people, it would furnish a full treat- 
ment of the subject, but I will pass that by for 
the time being. 

It may be noticed that the sacrifices have been 
made in various ways and under dissimilar cir- 
cumstances. There have been white men who 
have given their money, their wise counsel, their 
most efficient service, their social standing, and 
even their lives for the colored people. There 
are many such persons now living and working 
to the same glorious end of Christianizing and 
educating this race. 

The colored people have been taught, and not 
without cause, that most of their philanthropic 
assistance has come from friends of the North ; 
but it is gratifying to observe that much of the 
philanthropy received by the colored people in 
these days comes from Southern white people as 
well as from Northern friends. We are grateful 
to those who contribute their thousands toward 
elevating the colored people ; but a very remarka- 
ble feature about the aid given the colored people 
is that much of it is contributed by the middle 
class, the working class of white people in the 
North. We are told that out of their meager 
earnings the white people of the North gladly 
contribute to the establishment and maintenance 
of educational institutions for colored youth. 



42 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Not only have good white men and women 
made financial sacrifices by giving to the cause of 
Negro education, but have worked and taught 
among them and for them on very small salaries. 
It was not because these teachers had nothing 
else open to them, but it was for their love for 
humanity and especially for the unfortunate class 
of human beings. Sainted Bishop Galloway, of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, well said, 
"Why shall we canonize the missionaries that 
go and preach among the Africans in foreign 
lands and cannonlze the people that work among 
them in our own land?" In the morn of the 
Negro's educational life, when Rev. George 
Standing, the first employee of the Freedmen's 
Aid Society, taught and preached to the colored 
people, and Rev. W. P. Thirkield and wife at- 
tempted to teach colored men how to preach a 
pure gospel and to keep a model home, persons 
in their class were criticised and even ostracized. 
To teach Negroes to preach and tell them they 
had the rights of an American citizen meant to 
some one the reception of a piece of human flesh 
in the mail. 

It is a question as to which class is more de- 
serving, the class that furnished most money and 
means tor education, or the class that makes the 
sacrifice of social standing to serve among col- 
ored people as teachers and preachers, and at the 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 43 

same time contribute a part of their salaries to 
the work. 

We are glad to say that these sacrifices have 
not been made in vain. The hundreds of schools 
and colleges and universities and thousands of 
graduates fully justify the investment made. All 
honor to those who have sacrificed means, money, 
time, and social life for my people. The same 
honor to those now doing the same thing in 
whatever kindred, religious tribe, or denomina- 
tion. 



THE NEGRO IN THE METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

BY R. S. THWEAT 

Much has been said from time to time about 
the relation the Negro bears to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. This discussion has existed 
in different forms and stages till in process of 
development it has been reduced to one size and 
shape, and that represents the only honor that 
the Negro has not received from the bountiful 
hand of the Church. The elevation of a Negro 
to the episcopacy seems to be, on the part of the 
agitators, the only act which will convince them 
that the Church is absolutely sincere regarding 
its Negro constituency. 



44 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

The basis of this contention is evidently the 
result of malicious ignorance or unreasoning 
prejudice. It is quite unfortunate that no other 
words to express or describe this agitation are 
obtainable, because either condition is quite un- 
complimentary when applied to that class which 
advocate Negro elevation to the episcopacy. 

In considering the question from the views 
just mentioned we conclude that some need in- 
formation, while others seek not only to place 
the Church in a bad light, but to reflect upon all 
Negroes who continue to maintain their rela- 
tions in the Church. 

We cannot understand where our would-be 
benefactors get the idea that the Church owes 
the Negro such an enormous debt. And then, 
granting that the Church does owe this debt, we 
as creditors ought to be satisfied with the fre- 
quent and continuous installments that we are 
receiving. There are about three hundred thou- 
sand colored people in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The progress they have made and the 
recognition received are quite phenomenal. The 
disposition of the Church is to give the colored 
membership everything that it can justify itself 
in giving. The twenty- four schools supported 
by the Freedmen's Aid Society, and the sixteen 
homes maintained for colored girls by the 
Woman's Home Missionary Society, benefit the 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 45 

entire race. Out of the Church journals, which 
are supported by the Church, one of them has 
been managed by our race. All of these phases 
of church work have colored representatives : 
the Board of Foreign Missions, the Board of 
Home Missions and Church Extension, the 
Freedmen's Aid Society; and the more we ap- 
proach self-support, the more recognition we shall 
receive. Many of the pastors and district super- 
intendents in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
fill very desirable positions, and from a remunera- 
tive standpoint some more than equal the salaries 
of some who sit upon the episcopal bench in 
other Churches. 

The continual clamor of the fellow on the out- 
side leads us to believe that he is not satisfied 
with his lot. He reminds us of the young fellow 
whose wife did all the work, while he lived hap- 
pily from the sweat of her brow. He finally 
took a notion that he could do better elsewhere 
and to that end gathered up his belongings and 
moved. He soon found out that his meals did 
not come as regularly, neither was the bed on 
which he slept so comfortable. The sleep of the 
faithful wife was disturbed one night by a bang- 
ing on the door, and she looked out to see this 
fellow shouting, "Let me bring my clothes back 
home!" So if you have worn out your clothes, 
and have no good ones in which to return, do like 



46 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the prodigal son, and come home as you are. 
There is plenty and to spare, and we will kill the 
fatted calf for you. 



FELLOWSHIP WITH COLORED PEOPLE 

FROM THE CALIFORNIA CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE 

Methodism is great because it believes in hu- 
manity. It undertakes to lift up a race, to change 
the heart of a continent, to overthrow the bul- 
warks of the centuries. There is no task too 
great for it. No matter what the world may 
say, the Methodist Episcopal Church has done 
for the Negroes of the South a work that has 
not been surpassed in the history of the Christian 
centuries. Our fellowship with the colored peo- 
ple is real and an object lesson to the whole world. 
To purchase union with our sister denomination 
by surrendering the colored membership, if every 
colored member consented, would shatter the 
greatest chapter in the history of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The Church is deeper than 
the social question. It is working at the roots 
and changing the moral constitution of all the 
races. Education alone is not a basis of endur- 
ing fellowship. Individual fellowship in Christ 
is an adequate basis for a universal brotherhood. 

Experience in the South shows also that the 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 47 

administration of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
among the colored members has developed a 
moral standard, a type of membership far beyond 
that of any colored Church. Even Bishop Hoss 
in his fraternal address at Chicago admitted and 
placed emphasis on that fact. It is the logic 
of the case. The colored Methodist Episcopal 
Church members are the highest type of Chris- 
tian citizens among the colored people in the 
South. We would hesitate seriously to take any 
step looking to the change of the relation of the 
colored membership. Methodism has encoun- 
tered many cross-currents, counter-currents, and 
sub-currents, but at no time has Methodism 
changed her course. She believes in smashing 
all the "]im Crow" cars, all the "Ji* 11 Crow" con- 
stitutions, and establishing a universal brother- 
hood in which all the races blend. 



THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
AND THE COLORED PEOPLE 

BY THE REV. EDWARD L. GILLIAM, D.D. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in doctrine 
and in polity appeals strongly to the Negro's tem- 
perament and nature. The position of this 
Church upon all questions involving not only 



48 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

moral and religious, but also every civic right of 
all men, places it in a relation to him that is not 
occupied by any other Christian denomination in 
America, and persistently maintains it; and this 
persistence is, in my opinion, the keynote to the 
answer, if not the answer itself, to the query 
propounded to me. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church in her dealings with the Negro has been 
the means of inspiring him to put forth his best 
effort to develop the very highest type of Chris- 
tian manhood and Christian womanhood. This 
Church has always appealed to the best that was 
in him, and given him to understand that merit 
and character and push would receive due recog- 
nition regardless of the color of the skin or the 
texture of the hair. 

No person who has studied the methods 
adopted by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
her dealings with the Negro will claim, as do 
some not so well informed, that the colored mem- 
bership are being carried like infants. No, the 
Church has wisely pursued a policy of requiring 
that they measure up to the same standard, both 
intellectually and morally, that is demanded of 
her white membership, and the result has been 
the turning out of a class of ministers who stand, 
to say the least, without any superiors, among 
their own race, in any other Church or denomi- 
nation. 




Group 2 



Rev. I. L. Thomas, D.D. 

I. Garland Penn, A.M., Litt.D. 



Rev. C. C. Jacobs, D.D. 
Rev. E. M. Jones, D.D. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 49 

The Negro needs the counsel, the inspiration, 
the opportunities which this Church, more than 
any other, has to offer him. Her recognition of 
a Bowen, a Mason, a Thomas, a Penn, a Ham- 
mond, a Scott, a Jones, a Jacobs, and a host of 
others, not because their skin is black, nor that 
their race should have representation because 
of their numerical strength, but because of 
their ability, their character, their worthiness, has 
been accorded in competition with the best type 
of cultured, refined, educated white American 
citizenship; and this is indeed an inspiration and 
an encouragement. With her excellent schools, 
academies, seminaries, and colleges, with a task 
of Herculean proportions already accomplished, 
but with one of still greater difficulty and of tre- 
mendous import yet to be accomplished, it is an 
absolute necessity that he have the inspiration, 
the assistance, the support of a true and tried 
friend, such as the Methodist Episcopal Church 
has proven herself to be; and until this task has 
been completed there is need of her labors among 
the colored people. 

This Church recognizes the fact that the 
Negro is a man, and still is willing to accord him 
a man's chance by placing him side by side with 
other races and nationalities, and saying to him 
and to the world that he is to have equal oppor- 
tunity with the others, and is to receive equal 



50 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

praise or censure as his attainments and achieve- 
ments shall entitle him to receive. 

This is all that the Negro asks in any line or 
in any field — "equality of opportunity and equal- 
ity of reward"; and in this the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is the pioneer and the leader among 
the Churches of the Christian world. 

If the Negro is to attain the full stature of 
Christian scholarship and of Christian manhood 
he must come in close touch with the highest and 
best civilization of the times, and this can never 
be done except by the kind of association and 
contact which comes to him in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The white man and the black 
man will never thoroughly know and fully ap- 
preciate each other until they shall have spoken 
from the same platforms, preached from the same 
pulpits, deliberated together upon the same com- 
mittees, planned together in the same conferences 
and conventions, prayed together around the 
same altars, toiled and struggled and rejoiced to- 
gether over the same victories — never until they 
shall have had this experience can they properly 
appreciate and respect each other ; and the op- 
portunity to gain this experience and to secure 
this acquaintance is to be had only through such 
avenues as the Methodist Episcopal Church; 
hence her work must be continued until this 
mission has been finished. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 51 

WHY THE NEGRO SHOULD BE LOYAL 
TO THE METHODIST EPISCO- 
PAL CHURCH 

BY THE REV. E. H. OLIVER,, D.D. 

There are many reasons, but among the many 
is this : To save himself from the most serious 
charge that can be alleged against an individual, 
namely, ingratitude. 

I have never seen a person who would acknowl- 
edge that he was an ingrate. There is no virtue 
in ingratitude. For the Negro to be disloyal to 
the great Methodist Episcopal Church is to show 
to the world that he is divested of the mother 
of all virtues, namely, gratitude. For nothing 
softens the heart and opens the gushing fountain 
of love more than the exercise of gratitude. Like 
the showers of spring, it causes the seeds of many 
virtues to blossom and produce fruits precious to 
the spiritual feeding of this world. 

Tears of gratitude bring pleasures to us un- 
known to those who have never been forced from 
the sunshine of Christian privileges, such as 
home, church, and school — three great words, 
representing three great ideas — indeed, taking in 
our whole civilization. 

The Mighty One and the mighty Methodist 
Episcopal Church heard the cry of this helpless, 



52 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

bleeding, and long-forsaken son of Ham and 
came to his rescue. Shall he forget it? "If I 
forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand for- 
get her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let 
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." 
Besides the deep sense of benefit received, grati- 
tude always ardently desires to make all possible 
returns to those who have helped in time of need. 

There are two ways in which we can make re- 
turns to the great Church for what she has done 
for us : First, by the building of pure and noble 
characters; second, by giving to its various 
benevolences in order that others may be blessed 
as we have been. 

Men and women, boys and girls of the race, 
move your tents from the valley to the mountain, 
to the mountain of highest Christian living. The 
Church will doubt our loyalty if we do less than 
this, and God who has worked so wonderfully for 
us, through the Church, cannot make of us what 
he had purposed. 

When we get to this position in Christian liv- 
ing, the will to give to the various causes of the 
Church shall be strong enough to force us to do 
our full duty. The Negro in the Church needs 
to-day the will to do, more than the money to do 
with. If every one of us will give in proportion 
to our ability we will send a thrill of joy through 
the hearts of our friends and put to flight the 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 53 

army of the enemy. To give less than our ability 
will prove us to be disloyal, will weaken us with 
our friends, and, worst of all, weaken us with 
ourselves. 

The Church has done full well her part; we 
cannot deny this. Shall we do our part? May 
I hear the voices of three hundred thousand mem- 
bers, augmented by the voices of the two thou- 
sand two hundred and fifty-three Negro ministers 
of the Church, coming up in one mighty shout, 
loud enough to be heard by the whole Church, 
distinct enough to be understood in all languages, 
saying, "We will do our part!" 



EVIDENCES THAT THE METHODIST 

EPISCOPAL CHURCH IS DOING 

A GREAT WORK AMONG 

THE COLORED PEOPLE 

I 

BY THE REV. E. W. S. PECK, D.D. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has no apol- 
ogy to offer for its work among the races of men. 
It requires no attorney to plead for its right to 
be universal in its labors for the evangelization 
of men. It speaks for itself everywhere. In 
perfect obedience to the holy calling of God, its 



54 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

commission and authority is to "preach the gos- 
pel to every creature/' to "disciple all nations." 
To the colored people it has been the agency or- 
dained and inspired of God to "look up and lift 
up" the race from its enslavement and from its 
benighted condition. To the race it has been 
the evangel of Christian education, overcoming 
all hindrances to its mission. It has instituted 
schools from the preparatory to the highest grade 
of learning to prepare teachers and leaders of the 
race. The Methodist Episcopal Church has sent 
out from its schools qualified men and women 
skilled in the various professions; scientists, ar- 
tisans, business men, and mechanics it has pro- 
duced for the work of life. To the race it has 
given a colored ministry efficiently equipped to 
glorify God and honor the Church in its admin- 
istration to the spiritual need of the people. 

It is apparent that this great work is for all 
time. The present outlook is cheering to the 
colored people of the Church. There is no 
official position in the Church to which they are 
not eligible. The fact that the race has repre- 
sentatives in the missionary episcopacy, college 
presidents, assistant general secretary of the Ep- 
worth League, field agent for the Board of Home 
Missions and Church Extension, members of gen- 
eral administrative boards of the Church, gives 
promise that the future will find men of the race 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 55 

in the highest official authority of the Church. 
This indication should serve to quiet the nervous 
and self-seeking, and cause the people to endure 
with becoming patience the time. "They that 
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." 
"And we know that all things work together for 
good to them that love God, to them who are 
the called according to his purpose." Apply 
these inspired statements to the eventful past of 
the colored people. Did not our fathers wait 
upon the Lord when in bondage? Did not the 
day come when Almightiness delivered them? 
Was not their strength renewed? It was proved 
to them that out of their sufferings in bondage 
all things worked together for good, and since 
that day it is true. It is true to this day, and will 
be ever so. To further the accomplishment of 
this work, consecrated wealth by the millions 
has been freely contributed by the Church. This 
stream of devoted benevolence is yet flowing; it 
will not be stayed, for Divine Love has ordered 
it. You may as well try to stop the sun from 
shining or the waters of Niagara from flowing 
as to stop the Methodist Episcopal Church in its 
appointed work among the colored people. "What 
hath God wrought !" Peace on earth, good will 
to men. 



56 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

II 

BY THE REV. J. C. HOUSTON, D.D. 

The great good done for the colored race by 
the Methodist Episcopal Church is seen — 

First, in the large number of Sunday school 
teachers sent out from our schools each year, 
whose moral standing, intellectual status, and 
industrial activity tend with marvelous effect to 
lift the race in heart as well as in head. 

Second, in sending out each year the largest 
number of Negro physicians, whose successful 
practice proves their proficiency in their chosen 
profession. The Negro physician becomes the 
competitor of his white brother at the Board of 
Examination, and when successful proves him- 
self the equal of the so-called superior race in 
one of the most difficult and profound scientific 
studies known to universal scholarship, and thus 
they give the race a more lofty place in the esti- 
mation of the impartial thinkers of the earth. 

Third, in educating not only the preachers of 
our particular Church, but those of other de- 
nominations ; so that Gammon Theological Semi- 
nary is now sending forth a flood of intellectual, 
moral, and spiritual light whose resplendent rays 
are now effectually touching nearly every part of 
the race. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 57 

Fourth, in assisting in the building of churches 
through which thousands of our people have been 
reached for their moral uplift and spiritual bet- 
terment, which could not have been so success- 
fully effected without such aid. 

Fifth, in teaching the importance of self-sup- 
port, thus educating the race in the lofty princi- 
ples of self-reliance and inspiring the love of per- 
manent racial manhood. 

Those who misunderstood the mission of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church among our people 
made it their business for years to do everything 
in their power to keep the Church from succeed- 
ing. They misrepresented it for the purpose of 
preventing its wide spread among the colored 
people. We are glad to say that some of its 
greatest opposers in the South, both white and 
colored, see the Church in a different light and 
feel that it is their duty to commend the work 
and welcome it among our people as one of the 
greatest uplifting forces. Many are saying now, 
"God bless the Methodist Church," since they 
have understood its mission. 



58 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

THE RELATION OF THE METHODIST 

EPISCOPAL CHURCH TO THE 

COLORED PEOPLE 

BY THE EDITOR 

Philip Embury preached his first sermon 
in New York to five persons, and one of these 
was a colored woman. Harry Hosier, a local 
preacher, known in Methodist history as "Black 
Harry/' was a traveling companion to Bishop 
Asbury. He was so remarkable as a preacher 
that he was taken for Bishop Asbury by many 
who were too far away to see the speaker. The 
two facts above stated show how closely the col- 
ored man was allied to American Methodism in 
its infancy. The effect of the preaching of the 
circuit rider upon the colored man was the same 
as upon the white man; and the result was that 
Methodism spread rapidly among the colored 
people. This new type of religion had something 
in it even in the days of slavery that was adapted 
to the spiritual needs of the colored man. The 
brotherhood of mankind, as preached and prac- 
ticed by John Wesley, was of such power and 
force, was so true to the New Testament teach- 
ing, that it could not be swallowed up by Ameri- 
can slavery. And so the abolishment of this 
great American curse was due in large measure 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 59 

to the uncompromising host of Methodists who 
believed that slavery was wrong and who were 
unwilling to agree to any proposition that would 
tolerate it in any degree. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has made no 
apology for practicing the New Testament doc- 
trine of human brotherhood, and has welcomed 
the colored man within her bounds, treating him 
as a man and brother. This Christlike disposi- 
tion has been productive of much good among 
the colored people and has made them feel all 
over this land the spirit of gratitude. There are 
some of our people who have not been keen to 
see what the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
done for the race; they need to be pitied for the 
dullness of their vision and their incapacity to 
appreciate a fact that has contributed so much 
toward bringing out the good in a deprived and 
despised people. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has mani- 
fested to the world in her spirit and genius that, 
although there are many races in her bounds, 
they are all one in Christ Jesus. It has cost the 
Church much to maintain her ground, but to have 
acted in any other way would have had Method- 
ism running upon a narrow-gauge track, when 
Mr. Wesley started her on a broad-gauge. The 
Methodist Episcopal is a Church for mankind, and 
must include the colored man in its communion 



60 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

in order that it may take its stand in the Christian 
Church for the unity of the human race and the 
brotherhood of man. The marvelous growth 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church has been due 
more to the catholicity of her faith and the prac- 
tice of the Golden Rule than anything else. Race 
Christianity is unfounded in the New Testament, 
and wherever it is encouraged it is accepting a 
substitute for the genuine article. Any sort of 
Christianity which extends its good only to those 
of a certain race, and allows its adherents to treat 
the members of another race as they please, is a 
failure inasmuch as it was not a part of the pur- 
pose of Christ, its Founder. 

Again, any type of the Christian religion which 
is guilty of endeavoring to destroy another's 
faith in some other type of the Christian religion 
is little better than a mere travesty of Christian- 
ity, and any growth which it has as a result of 
proselyting members of other denominations can- 
not ultimately work for the best. It would be 
far better for a religion to make its doctrines so 
universal as to include everyone rather than to 
proselyte members from other religions and bring 
them into its own narrow way of thinking and 
acting. 

In order that Methodism as a whole may get 
back to the purpose of John Wesley, it must over- 
come the petty differences which have divided it 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 61 

in the past ; it must get back to Wesley's scope of 
duty and to Christ's standard of service and uni- 
versal sympathy, in order that it be known the 
world over that Methodism is a solid unit de- 
termined, as was Wesley, to take the world for 
Christ. 

The individual soldiers of a phalanx may each 
belong to different races; one may be German, 
another may be African, a third Swedish, and so 
on, and each of these soldiers may be a great 
warrior; but only can the phalanx be successful 
in routing the enemy when each soldier sacrifices 
his own peculiar racial distinctions and prejudices 
to the common welfare and so welds the once 
separate parts into a solid whole. The Method- 
ist Episcopal Church has taught the world one 
thing, that the color of a man's skin is not to be 
taken into account when it comes to rights and 
privileges in the kingdom of God. Simon, who 
bore the cross of Jesus, is of as much importance 
in the sight of the Master as John Wesley, the 
founder of Methodism. The Methodist Epis- 
copal Church does not pass the colored man by 
as the Levite and priest passed by the man who 
had fallen among thieves, but, on the contrary, 
like the good Samaritan, goes to his rescue and 
ministers unto him in his unfortunate condition. 

Human sympathy and Christian service 
prompted by the Christ spirit have lifted its 



62 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

members far above race prejudice. In gathering 
the wheat of the great harvest it has no time to 
spend examining the color of the sheaves. The 
grain to be gathered is of every race and tongue. 
However, the Master is not calling for men to 
separate the grain, but for laborers to gather it 
into his kingdom. Wherever the facts are made 
known concerning the interest the Methodist 
Episcopal Church has taken in the welfare of the 
colored race, nothing but appreciation and grati- 
tude are manifested on the part of our people. 
May this great branch of the Christian Church 
continue to be an active example of the brother- 
hood of man, as its doctrines are of the father- 
hood of God ! 



PIONEERS AMONG US 

BY THE REV. W. R. R. DUNCAN, D.D. 

The early years of our Conference compared 
with the present are a history in themselves. 
The Revs. W. H. Crawford, G. W. Taylor, A. J. 
Phillips, W. H. Higgins, John Legrand, and T. 
Harden have all gone to their homes above. 
They used to attend the Saint Louis Conference 
before the Arkansas Conference, out of which 
the Little Rock came, was organized. They were 
the self-sacrificing pioneers whose earnest efforts 
made possible the furtherance of the Church 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 63 

work in these Conferences. Some of them had 
to travel on horseback for more than two hundred 
miles to the seat of the Conference with only 
one suit of clothes ; still with all of this they were 
happy and rejoiced in the fact that Providence 
had chosen them to be the first to minister unto 
those out of Christ in these communities. 

Rev. E. Roberts was once our missionary west 
of Little Rock. Then we had about ten appoint- 
ments, with about as many pastors. For several 
years we had no one of us to act as secretary. 
This was done by white men, such as Rev. I. G. 
Pollard and Rev. L. W. Elkins. They were 
great men; they gave their whole lives to the 
Master and to the extension of his kingdom. W. 
H. Crawford served two terms as presiding elder, 
W. H. Higgins one term, A. J. Phillips one term, 
and J. W. Jackson, who though young in age 
ranks with the old pioneers, one term. 

Mrs. Hilda M. Nasmyth is among the good 
and blessed women who gave up everything for 
work of the Church among our people. Margie 
Layport in her day stood as high as any in the 
connection. I (excuse personality) entered the 
Arkansas Conference in 1877, and served all 
five of the districts as presiding elder and district 
superintendent. Many of us served a whole year 
for a salary of fifty dollars. We felt that our 
reward was not to be on earth, but in heaven. 



64 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

May the good work of the kingdom go on 
until not only the colored people of the Southland 
but every race and nation on the globe shall bow 
before the Almighty ! 



SELF-SACRIFICING COLORED MEN AND 
WOMEN OF THE CHURCH 

BY THE REV. J. S. THOMAS, A.M. 

"What hath God wrought !" We have sim- 
ply entered into the labors of the fathers. They 
labored through great difficulties and under try- 
ing circumstances to bring about the present con- 
dition of things. To hear from the lips of some 
of the pioneers of their many struggles, of the 
dangers braved, often taking their lives in their 
hands, of the deprivations suffered, of the long 
and tiresome journeys on foot, through dark and 
dismal swamps, sometimes breaking the ice to 
ford the streams ; of how they traveled through 
all kinds of weather, in rain and sleet and snow, 
sleeping out at night with the earth for a mat- 
tress, a stone for a pillow, the atmosphere with 
a pressure of fifteen pounds per square inch for 
blanket, walled in by the vast howling wilderness 
and sheltered by the deep blue sky, or, what was 
not much better, in a shanty where they could 




Group 3 



Rev. J. P. Wragg, D.D. 
M. S. Davage, A.M. 



Rev. W. H. Logan, D.D. 
Rev. W. W. Lucas, D.D. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 65 

study the stars through the shingles and note the 
approach of day between the slabs or poles of 
which the house was built, and receive ventila- 
tion through the cracks in the floor, one would 
decide that it took more courage to establish the 
work in this Southland than it takes to face shot 
and shell. These godly men, a few of whom 
linger among us to this day, were not blessed 
with school advantages; but they had come very 
closely in touch with God, they had a glorious 
view of his redeeming love, they caught a glimpse 
of things divine and had brought themselves to 
that exalted state of self-surrender which enables 
one to reach that higher state of self-realization, 
and they could say with Paul, "Brethren, I count 
not myself to have apprehended : but this one 
thing I do, forgetting those things which are be- 
hind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize 
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

But this kind of work has not ceased. Those 
godly men referred to have simply dropped out 
of rank, but others have taken their places, for 
as yet there is so much land to be possessed ; and 
this very day there are scores and hundreds of 
men, and women too, who are making such sac- 
rifices of which no other cause is worthy; grand 
men, noble men, for the sake of the meek and 
lowly Jesus are living with their families in par- 



66 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

sonages that are mere apologies for houses, with 
threadbare clothes knitted together by the needle 
of the thrifty housewife; calling their families 
around the festal board upon which there is 
scarcely enough of the commonest food to keep 
soul and body together. They read God's word 
and sing one of Zion's songs, and get down upon 
their knees and present themselves, their families, 
and their flocks to God, thank him for the scanty 
meal provided, and praise his name because he has 
accounted them worthy of breaking the bread of 
life unto dying men. How these noble soldiers 
of the cross, these valiant warriors in the army 
of the living God, would fare with their families, 
without the little pittance sent them by the Board 
of Home Missions and Church Extension, is a 
matter for the imagination to feed on. The 
noblest of the noble heroes are in this number. 
Uncrowned kings and queens are they. 



COLORED WORK IN WHITE 
CONFERENCES 

BY THE EDITOR 

Sometimes it is a question whether the colored 
membership is increasing in proportion to the 
increase among distinctively colored Methodist 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 67 

bodies. A little light upon the subject might ex- 
plain why the membership does not show such 
remarkable increase. 

There is a large number of people who were 
born in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
who have been so loyal that, instead of joining 
colored churches in the North and West, they 
have preferred uniting with white Methodist 
churches, as in Boston and other cities in both 
the East and the West. Some churches in which 
the membership is entirely colored are within 
the bounds of white Conferences. For instance, 
the two colored churches in the New York Con- 
ference — Saint Mark's Church in New York 
city, with over one thousand members, and a mis- 
sion church from Saint Mark's in a flourishing 
condition. The membership of these churches is 
composed largely of persons who have lived in 
the South, and, being in New York, have iden- 
tified themselves with our churches. These 
members are not lost to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, but are counted among the white mem- 
bership of the Church. 

In Boston a great many of our people who have 
gone to that city from other places are members 
of several white churches there. We have lost a 
considerable portion of our membership w T ithin 
the bounds of the West Texas and Texas Con- 
ferences; these members have moved to Call- 



68 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

fornia and other places, and we have at Los An- 
geles one of our best churches. A number of 
missions have been planted in various cities in 
southern California — so many that the General 
Committee was urged by Bishop Hamilton to 
make an appropriation for the colored work in 
that part of the State. All these members are 
counted with the membership of the Southern 
California Conference, and, therefore, are lost 
to the colored membership as a whole. 

Then, there are certain conditions which have 
had much to do with this large exodus of our peo- 
ple from the South to the North. They have 
heard that there is not much discrimination in the 
North against a man on account of his color, that 
every man is protected under the law, that better 
wages are paid, that equal provision is made for 
the education of all children, that men of all 
races are upon equal footing in the exercise of 
the right of franchise; and for these and other 
reasons Negroes are leaving the South. The col- 
ored population is rapidly increasing East and 
West. 

Among those who have left the South are 
thousands who were members of our Church. 
Some of them, as stated, have joined our Church 
in the cities and towns where they are now living, 
but a large percentage of them have gone into 
other Churches; and why? Because in many 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 69 

places we have no organization. The bishops 
and officers of the distinctively colored Methodist 
Churches are daily trying to organize their 
churches in every community out of all the Meth- 
odists they find. In many instances they take 
advantage of our members, telling them they are 
Methodists. So, inasmuch as we have so few 
of our leaders in these Northern and Western 
towns, thousands of our members may be found 
in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and 
in other colored Churches. 

We bring out these features of the work that 
it may be seen that where we have no church 
among our colored members a large number of 
them go into the colored Methodist Churches in 
various cities and towns, and yet quite a large 
percentage prefer membership in their own 
Church, and therefore that fact necessitates their 
joining the white church. This is the chief rea- 
son why our membership does not show a larger 
proportional increase. Where everything is 
equal our Church grows as rapidly and as sub- 
stantially as other Churches. 



70 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

VARIOUS MOVEMENTS FOR THE 
EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 

BY THE REV. M. C. B. MASON/ D.D., PH.D. 

One of the most remarkable movements of the 
last century was the movement inaugurated for 
the education of the newly emancipated freed- 
man. It came as an immediate response to the 
sore and distressed condition of the Negro, and 
the urgent and pressing demands of the nation. 
It was spontaneous, it was patriotic, it was un- 
selfish, it was Christlike. 

The first organization in the field was the 
Western Christian Association, of which Dr. J. 
M. Walden, now bishop, was the first correspond- 
ing secretary. There were earlier efforts by in- 
dividuals and churches, and here and there by 
officers in the Union army, but the Western 
Christian Association, we believe, was the first 
organized movement for the intellectual and 
moral uplift of the Negro. 

In 1867 the Western Christian Association 
took a denominational form and merged into the 
Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. About the same time — indeed, it 
is somewhat difficult to decide which came first — 
the Congregationalists, under the auspices of the 
American Missionary Society, organized work in 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 71 

the South. Then came the Baptists, later the 
Presbyterians, and afterward the Episcopalians 
and Lutherans. 

There were organizations under the control 
and supervision of distinctly Negro bodies, but 
whatever prominence they attained came at a 
much later date. Whatever may be said of the 
evils of the reconstruction period, this much may 
be said to its credit, namely, a public school sys- 
tem was inaugurated for the education of all 
the people and put into operation by all the States 
formerly under the dominion of slavery. This 
was the first the South had ever known of a pub- 
lic school system, and if the "carpetbagger/ ' so 
called, had done this and stopped, he might have 
won for himself an unfading crown. Credit 
must be given to these much-abused people for 
the difficulty some reform legislators have en- 
countered in attempting to fundamentally change 
this system, since they placed it into organized 
law of the State by constitutional process that 
the money collected for public education should 
be used without favor and without discrimination. 

Another important factor in this connection is 
that just as soon as the State had fairly well or- 
ganized the system of public education the 
Church schools were turning out their first class 
of educated young men and women to teach 
them. 



J2 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

While it must be admitted that these organiza- 
tions have only touched the rim of the great mass 
of illiteracy in the South, yet the good that has 
been done is immeasurable, and there is reason 
for praise and thanksgiving. For hundreds and 
thousands of Christian teachers and ministers 
and scores of Christian physicians and industrial 
workers throughout the South stand not only for 
good citizenship, but are themselves active work- 
ers in the pulpit of the many thousands who have 
not come directly under the influence of these 
schools. These are encouraging facts, but much 
remains to be done; and let it be said in all can- 
dor that new ideas, new conditions, and new 
problems will arise. Indeed, they have already 
arisen. New conditions have completely changed 
our position, so that the question now is not, 
What shall be done with the Negro? nor that 
other antiquated question, What shall the Negro 
do with the white man? but rather, What will 
the Negro do with himself, his present privileges, 
and obligations growing out of them? and upon 
the answer he gives to this question will depend 
in no small degree whether he shall continue an 
insignificant element in our national life or a 
recognized essential factor in its growth and de- 
velopment. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 73 

WHAT THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH HAS DONE IN THE WAY 

OF NEGRO EDUCATION 



BY R. S. LOVINGGOOD, A.M., PH.D. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has done a 
marvelous work in educating the Negro. While 
we recognize the good work other Churches have 
done and are doing for the education of the 
Negro, yet it would be difficult to imagine what 
would be the condition of the Negro to-day had 
it not been for the Freedmen's Aid Society. 
More than 150,000 boys and girls have been 
matriculated in our schools. We have prepared 
nearly 10,000 teachers for the race, and have 
nearly 4,000 graduates from the different de- 
partments of our schools. We have about 1,000 
graduates in medicine, nearly 1,000 in theology. 
These graduates are in all churches. They are 
at work in all honorable vocations, ministry, 
teaching, missionaries, lawyers, business, farm- 
ing, government service, etc. They are leaders 
of the people. Many of them are presidents of 
colleges. Three of them are bishops in colored 
Churches. 

We have one theological school, two medical 
schools, 11 academies, 10 colleges, a total of 24 



74 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

schools, 467 teachers, 8,350 students. More 
than half of these students are pursuing indus- 
trial trades, the others professional and classical 
courses. Total property valuation is $1,417,698. 
The Church has expended about $1,500,000 in 
maintaining these schools since the war. 

However, dollars and cents and bricks and 
mortar are not the greatest things in the world. 
The greatest things given to us have been flesh, 
blood, love, mercy, sympathy, and inspiration; 
the noble, heroic men and women who came and 
lived among us to teach us a better way. The 
ashes of many of them sleep their last sleep in 
our Southern soil. Their memory is ever green 
in the minds of thousands of students. A few 
still remain to bless and inspire us. 

It might be well to name a few of our gradu- 
ates: Bishop I. B. Scott, Dr. M. C. B. Mason, 
Dr. J. W. E. Bowen, Dr. R. E. Jones, editor of 
the Southwestern Christian Advocate; Dr. I. L. 
Thomas, field agent of the Board of Home Mis- 
sions and Church Extension; Dr. E. M. Jones, 
Sunday school agent; Dr. J. M. Cox, president 
of Philander Smith College Academy; Dr. J. P. 
Wragg, American Bible Society; Dr. A. P. Cam- 
phor, president of Central Alabama College; Dr. 
J. C. Sherrill, missionary to Africa; Dr. J. H. 
Reed, president of College of West Africa; Dr. 
W. W. Lucas, field secretary of the Foreign 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 75 

Missionary Society; Dr. George W. Arnold, 
Gammon School of Theology; Dr. S. A. Peeler, 
president of Bennett College; Professor M. S. 
Davage, business manager of the Southwestern 
Christian Advocate; Professor J. M. Matthews, 
president of Gilbert College, and a hundred others 
in our Church and others almost equally well 
known. 

And still the Society goes forth under the in- 
spiring leadership of Drs. Mason and Maveety 
to continue the work of beneficence to our strug- 
gling people. May God cause his face to shine 
upon this great organization and give it greater 
prosperity! May our people ever prove worthy 
of it! 

II 

BY THE REV. S. A. PEELER, D.D. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has con- 
tributed largely to the Negro's development 
wherever the Church exists. The writer knows 
more about the Church's educational work in the 
South, and, in view of the fact, what is contained 
in this sketch will relate almost entirely to the 
Southern States. 

The work done by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church among the Negroes has been made more 
fruitful in good results in that other denomina- 
tions have cooperated. Several Churches share 



76 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

in what has been achieved. The denominational 
schools have given to the Negro his best oppor- 
tunity to educate himself. Outside of these 
schools he has a little better than no chance at 
what is known as higher education. For the 
most part the Negro has had to qualify in the 
Church school or be content with the mere smat- 
tering of an education that may be secured in 
the public schools. When we consider the fact 
that the South, not sufficiently developed to main- 
tain a good public school system, practically at- 
tempts to support two systems — one for the Cau- 
casian and one for the Negro — and that the 
Negro has access to the poorer of these poor sys- 
tems, then appears the importance of the denomi- 
national school as a factor in the education of 
the Negro. This is one reason why the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church founds and sustains schools 
for the Negro throughout the Southland. 

The suggestion that the opportunity for the 
Negro to qualify would be made better by the 
Southern States if the Church schools were not 
so prevalent is worth little when the truth of the 
matter is known. Under the system that they 
are trying to operate the Southern States could 
not do what they are now doing without the aid 
of denominational schools. The teachers of pub- 
lic schools for Negroes, as a rule, qualify in the 
denominational school. It is exceptional to find 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 77 

one who did not. The principals of nearly all 
the city schools — in fact, all that the writer 
knows, and he has traveled extensively in his 
own State and somewhat in several others — are 
persons who got their training in the Church 
schools. Nearly all the principals and presidents 
of the few normal schools and institutions main- 
tained by these States for the higher training of 
the Negro are graduates from the denominational 
school. The chief officer in one of the State 
schools for the Negro said recently in a public 
talk that the curriculum in his school is not what 
it ought to be, and that it would be less of what 
it should be were it not that a good Church school 
is neighbor to it. 

There is a large and constantly increasing sen- 
timent in favor of giving the Negro an education 
— a liberal education. The Negro can, with the 
hearty approval of many, now have a chance at 
preparing for professional life. Just when this 
chance would have come to him had the Church 
not made the experiment and proved that it pays 
to educate him no one knows. This sentiment 
helps not only in making possible the kind of 
education that the Negro needs, but also in en- 
couraging him to secure it. The denominational 
school has not only been the Negro's best friend, 
but has been instrumental in making friends for 
him. 



78 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

The denominational schools have a monopoly 
in preparing the Negro to be trained thoroughly 
in all the works in life. If as you go you in- 
quire of persons successful in their fields of labor 
where they qualified, to get answers from so 
many that they attended some Church school, 
suggests, at least, the magnitude of the work 
that is being done by these schools. Trained 
farmers, nurses, merchants, mechanics, doctors, 
lawyers, teachers, preachers, postal clerks, den- 
tists, are the products directly or indirectly of the 
Church school. It would be difficult to measure 
accurately the work and influence of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, which has for more than 
forty years given freely of her wealth and life to 
a cause that is so public-spirited and so unlimited 
in its scope. When among the successful ones 
of the race you ascertain the percentage of them 
that received their training in the schools of this 
Church you will find only in part what the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church has done in the way of 
education for the Negro. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 79 

WHAT THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH HAS DONE EDUCATION- 
ALLY FOR THE COLORED MAN 

BY THE REV. JOHN W. MOULTRIE, D.D. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has taken a 
firm stand in every agency which helps her com- 
municants toward the fullest development of 
their God-given powers. The Church has always 
been a stubborn opponent of ignorance in any 
form and has inaugurated and maintained in- 
stitutions of learning. In this endeavor it has 
kept an abiding faith in the "unfortunate colored 
brother.'' 

Notwithstanding the splendid work by the 
State through the common school system, a work 
which an enlightened civilization and proved peo- 
ple must foster, the Church so full of philan- 
thropy and the Christian spirit came to our rescue 
by extending to us the open door through the 
university and the college and equipping them 
with suitable and attractive buildings and with 
men and women of the right stamp. These 
workers who chose to come South wrought mir- 
acles, discouraged superstition and ignorance, and 
set forces to work and joined hearts, thereby giv- 
ing us a place in this land in spite of trying cir- 
cumstances, greatly to the delight of our increas- 



80 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

ing host of friends North and South, and to the 
astonishment of formidable enemies. 

The Freedmen's Aid Society is the happiest 
expression of brotherhood which the Church 
has bequeathed to us and to unborn millions. 
Through this agency thousands have been edu- 
cated and are being educated, and tens of thou- 
sands will be. Who can stop it ? Who will at- 
tempt it? 

Even among us denominational strife is ap- 
parent. But our Church has furnished the ma- 
jority of the leaders for most of the denomina- 
tions of color. And, too, we are taking care of 
the young host. The future is pregnant with 
adequate returns and flattering results. 

It is very fortunate for us that we are members 
of such a great Church, heirs of large concerns, 
and brothers of good and faithful servants. Op- 
timistic in spirit, cosmopolitan in polity, and 
happy in service, she has written the brightest 
page in history since the Reformation. The spirit 
of the Christ is her spirit. The work of saving 
millions in both hemispheres, and to displace the 
confusion of tongues and to aid in the diffusion 
of knowledge, is her task. She will continue to 
touch and elevate the Negro along with the other 
races. Every creature, race, and kindred must 
have a place at her altars and a schoolhouse in 
their midst. 




Sharp Street Memorial Church, Baltimore, Md. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 81 

The Methodist Episcopal Church will not leave 
us out. The cause is the Lord's. The work be- 
longs to both, the helper and the helped, and the 
end is his glory and honor. 



THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
AND THE EDUCATION OF ITS NE- 
GRO MEMBERSHIP 

BY THE REV. M. W. DOGAN, A.M., PH.D. 

The missionary spirit of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is its characteristic feature. With 
this made prominent it has expanded and gained 
strength in various other ways ; divorced from it, 
the Church would pine and die. It has fathered all 
other benevolent organizations without losing any 
of its power. No one questions its right to first 
place among our auxiliaries, nor thinks its mission 
any less important than when it was inaugurated. 
Easter Sunday the world over grows in favor be- 
cause of what it represents, and loud hosannas 
are sung to the God of the heavens for the spread 
of his kingdom upon earth. It speaks well for 
the Church that vast numbers have consecrated 
themselves fully to God and go where he wants 
them to go — to China, with her seclusive policy; 
to India, with her system of caste; to Alaska, 
with her eternal snows ; and to Africa, with her 



82 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

burning sands and scorching deserts. And the 
steady increase in collections indicates that ere 
long no section of the earth will be so remote as 
to lack adequate means for missionary conquests. 

The missionary spirit of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, as it relates especially to its Negro 
membership, manifested itself not only in opening 
the way for churches, so that the spiritual needs, 
which had been necessarily neglected, might be 
ministered unto, but also manifested itself in the 
establishment of a system of schools the most re- 
markable in the Church. It is to be doubted if 
history anywhere furnishes a parallel to the ac- 
complishments of our Church in this great edu- 
cational movement. The condition of the slave 
was a matter of serious consideration to the heart 
of our Church fifty years before his freedom, 
and in keeping with this advanced thought it be- 
gan immediately after Appomattox to defend 
his claims at the bar of public opinion and to be- 
come his adviser and protector during the sub- 
sequent years of his struggle. This new de- 
parture in an educational way consequently was 
not to be wondered at. The spirit that made the 
Negro an object of thought on the part of a large 
element of the Church was the same spirit that 
prompted the planting of schools in the South 
for his benefit. 

These Freedmen's Aid schools in the begin- 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 83 

ning were made up of all forms of irregularities 
and inconsistencies, so much so that many thought 
the sympathy of their projectors got the better of 
their judgment. The equipment was poor; from 
necessity there could be no grading. It some- 
time happened that grandfather, father, and son 
were in the same class, and each took hold with 
equal earnestness. The pupils bought such text- 
books as they could secure, there sometimes be- 
ing as many different authors represented in a 
class as there were pupils. How ludicrous to at- 
tach the name college or university to such a 
school! The majority of them have not even 
yet reached that stage of permanency and 
efficiency as to wear such titles. But this fact 
shows two things : in the first place, the great 
Church intended ultimately that these institutions 
for its Negro membership should merge into col- 
leges and universities ; secondly, at the beginning 
of our history as f reedmen the Church recognized 
the fact that Christian leaders thoroughly trained 
would be required to secure best results from 
this great outlay of men and money. 

The average American's idea of education is 
faulty in that it is too practical. This is in keep- 
ing with the spirit of the times. America is now 
in its material age, when financial gain is the mo- 
tive power and every system of philosophy must 
adjust itself to this measuring rod. The glitter 



84 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

of gold and the charm of banknotes possess 
such a fascination for the average American that 
the best of his energy is expended in pursuit of 
them. The development of the finer qualities of 
mind and soul are reckoned as of secondary 
importance. To such ones the making of money 
comes first, the making of man afterward. To be 
influenced by the theories advanced by a certain 
school of thinkers is to count life a great battle- 
ground for making a living, and for accumulat- 
ing and putting into storehouses that which 
"moths doth corrupt and thieves break through 
and steal." Get-rich-quick schemes find a ready 
market among us. Many a man otherwise hon- 
est, in his longing for wealth, has let go his 
meager earnings in oil stock of imaginary wells 
and in mining stock of non-existing mines. Lot- 
tery companies would control fabulous wealth if 
not restricted by law, and companies of poor, ex- 
cited humanity in quest of buried treasures are 
far too numerous. With us here in America just 
at this time it is matter, not mind; it is wealth, 
not culture; it is cents, not sense. 

These false notions of life are but the natural 
results of the undue prominence given the prac- 
tical phase of our educational system. O that 
the energy, the God-given energy that is being 
squandered in search of phantoms, could be used 
in bringing added blessings to the human family ! 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 85 

With the foregoing ideas of education so gen- 
eral in this country, it is to be wondered at so few 
believe in putting within reach of the Negro the 
broadest and best education. Therefore every 
Negro of whatever faith should honor the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church for the bold stand it has 
taken in demanding that the Negro have within 
his reach the same varieties of education as are 
placed before any other American citizen, he to 
choose in accordance with his inclinations and 
talents. The Episcopal Address read at the Gen- 
eral Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in 1904, signed by all the bishops of this 
the world's largest Methodism, made the follow- 
ing statements touching the Negro and his educa- 
tion: "Hewers of wood and drawers of water, 
mechanics and farm laborers, no doubt the vast 
majority of men of every color in this land and 
in every other land are and will always be, unless 
scientific progress and the multiplication of ma- 
chinery shall totally transform existing indus- 
trial methods. But the essential conditions of 
public welfare in a country like this require that 
men of every nationality, color, and language 
shall be free according to personal merit to rise 
in the ranks and above the ranks. While, there- 
fore, there is ample reason to rejoice in the great 
recent advance in manual training for both col- 
ored and white youth, there is also absolute need 



86 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

for higher and the highest intellectual oppor- 
tunities to be open to both." 

These are expressions of the highest authori- 
ties in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the 
fact that the episcopacy, the mouthpiece of the 
connection, commits itself as it does in this 
matter is a source of genuine encouragement. 
It parallels the liberal command, "Go ye into all 
the world and preach the gospel," etc. Open the 
doors to all who are in search of truth. Deny 
to no one the right to investigate in line with his 
inclinations. If a black boy has been specially 
endowed by the Creator with an investigating 
mind, if his movements indicate him to be a seeker 
after secrets revealed only to the earnest worker, 
humanity is sinned against if such one is denied 
a chance. Let him climb ; block not his pathway. 
The world will be made richer by the facts he may 
demonstrate. He is robbing no one, he is simply 
carrying out the wishes of his Maker. This is 
the spirit back of the schools under the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

That the Churches are the only agencies in the 
South offering adequate facilities for the educa- 
tion of Negroes is a well-established fact. Not 
a State south of the Mason and Dixon line main- 
tains a Negro college or university or profes- 
sional school of any character, and a majority of 
them make no pretense at operating even high- 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 87 

class normal schools. The superintendent of ed- 
ucation of one of our Southern States declared 
in a recent address that he favored abolishing 
even the high school so far as it related to the 
Negro. What a picture would confront the race 
and this nation but for the educational provisions 
of their Churches! Talk about dark problems 
and uninviting conditions and hopeless surround- 
ing. The South would have been weighted down 
by a mass of ignorance that would have made 
progress well-nigh impossible had it not been for 
the spirit of the Christ that led to the lines of 
educational help before us. 

These schools are sending forth young men 
and young women of a conservative turn of mind, 
who really hope for the advancement of the coun- 
try. They feel themselves not wards, but citi- 
zens. This is in line with their teaching, for be 
it remembered that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is as patriotic as any organization on the 
continent, and as such seeks in every honorable 
way to encourage every move that tends to the 
development of our common country. Again, 
the young people are taught in our institutions to 
at least be tolerant of certain conditions that can 
be changed only by the most careful movements. 
Although agitators drop out here and there, and 
they may be a necessity in God's scheme of crea- 
tion, a great company of level-headed, conserva- 



88 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

tive ones are produced to render ineffective those 
rash acts that might prove great hindrances to the 
different causes the Church is struggling to for- 
ward. We do not wish, however, to give the 
impression that the Church makes cowards of its 
Negro membership. It does not make cowards, 
but it does make discreet leaders, who recognize 
the fact that certain things in this country must 
be tolerated as a matter of expediency, and they 
yield with the hope of gaining all guaranteed 
rights in the end. Every student of conditions 
knows it requires the most patient and discrimi- 
nating toil to work out certain racial problems. 
Conditions are so complex that he is unsafe as a 
leader who reaches conclusions without a proper 
regard for the delicate relationships met on every 
hand. 

The Freedmen's Aid schools and similar insti- 
tutions supported by other religious denomina- 
tions for the education of my people are teaching 
the world valuable lessons. The great sums of 
money expended by the Church in planting this 
remarkable system of education to prepare our 
people for new contact with a distinct people have 
been spent wisely. The fires kindled in our souls 
by the missionary teachers sent among us have 
enabled us to praise God under most trying ad- 
versities, and to hope in the face of threatened 
extermination. The teachings of Jesus Christ 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 89 

they brought to us have turned resentment into 
pity and brought love through tears. Their lives 
of sacrifice and devotion have impressed us with 
peculiar power, and the absence of revengeful 
actions under widespread grievances is a virtue 
commended by people everywhere. As we open 
the eyes of others our eyes are also opened. The 
hardships and oppositions met by our people in 
this country cannot all be charged to blind, un- 
reasonable, withering prejudice. Some of the 
unfavorable conditions are unavoidably connected 
with our advancing civilization ; they are the re- 
sults of evolutionary changes, which are invaria- 
bly attended with disaster. However gradually 
the old may merge into the new, it matters not 
with what care improvements looking to racial 
uplift are made, there are certain stages of such 
changes that have their periods of misunderstand- 
ing and disruption. It is the price paid for a 
higher order of civilization, and is confined to no 
race and to no section. 

The Negro owes much to the Church for what 
it has done for him along educational lines, and 
should see to it that the spirit of missions, the 
accredited agency of responsibility for these in- 
stitutions, shall burn in his heart. "Freely ye 
have received, freely give," should strongly ap- 
peal to him when he sees the needy and distressed. 
It would be neglect approaching a crime for him 



90 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

to turn a deaf ear to the pleading of men. Africa 
has a special hold on the American Negro. Bishop 
Walden says God may have held Africa in abey- 
ance for centuries to give the American Negro 
a chance in its development. These schools, 
then, the result of missionary effort on the part 
of the Church, are to have a great hand in pre- 
paring missionaries for the redemption of their 
fatherland. The Church has caught the idea, for 
already scores have gone and many others are 
preparing. Let us do our whole duty by the 
organization that has done so much for us. 



MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE AN IM- 
PORTANT FACTOR IN THE SOLU- 
TION OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM 

BY H. ROGER WILLIAMS, M.D. 

The so-called "Negro problem" is a problem 
not of color, but of conditions. A people living 
under unwholesome influences, in filth, poverty, 
debauchery, vice, foul air, poorly prepared food, 
and in crowded localities, with no rule regulating 
their eating, sleeping, habits, or actions, must in- 
evitably furnish a very high death rate and be a 
menace to any community, State, or section of 
country in which they are congregated in large 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 91 

numbers. And the migrating from one to an- 
other section of country without a change in 
habits, customs, or modes of living does not aid 
in the solution, but adds to the complications of 
the problem. Property depreciates in value in 
proportion as their numbers increase. Insurance 
rates become higher, and the moral tone of the 
place is lowered, because from their poverty- 
stricken condition they crowd into the most un- 
desirable shanties in quest of cheap rent, and sleep 
in poorly ventilated hovels, with a string of damp 
clothes, in many instances, bisecting every angle 
of the room. Throughout the nation it is a 
"problem of the ignorant masses" ; in New York 
it is a "problem of foreign immigration" ; in Cali- 
fornia it is a "Chinese problem" ; in the South it 
is a "Negro problem." 

We confine ourselves to the Negro problem. 
Neither incendiary speeches, with mass meetings 
and lengthy resolutions on our part, nor legisla- 
tive enactments on the part of the whites among 
whom we dwell, will work out a solution. The 
problem must be solved by individual members 
of the race, who after solving the problem with 
reference to themselves will join every other in- 
dividual Negro who has solved it with reference 
to himself, and form a solid phalanx to battle for 
the solution of the problem with reference to the 
more unfortunate members of the race. We 



92 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

must inculcate and emulate those virtues and 
qualities which every nation or people possess 
who maintain a place in the world's category of 
races. 

We must accept it as an axiom that the sanc- 
tity of the home and the purity of family life are 
the foundations of human progress, for all per- 
sonal and civic virtues are nurtured in the home. 
The Anglo-Saxon's civilization is the natural 
outgrowth of his ideal home life, and as a race 
we must learn to regard home as a sacred place, 
and not simply as a place in which to eat and 
sleep. 

We need the gospel of health preached from 
every pulpit, in every Sunday school, in every 
schoolroom, at every fireside, in every home. The 
vital question for our consideration is how to 
take care of the body, that it may serve the pur- 
pose of God best in the world and be most ac- 
ceptable in the world to come. As a people, our 
death rate in the Southern cities is greater than 
that of any other people living under the same 
climatic influences. The number of childless 
wives increases each year; the number of prema- 
ture births among us is alarming; the infantile 
death rate is appalling; while consumption, a dis- 
ease unknown to us fifty years ago, is the direct 
cause of twenty-five per cent of our deaths each 
year. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 93 

All the strong motives of religion and the eter- 
nal world are taught us with earnestness by our 
preachers, who are eager to impress us with cer- 
tain duties that are important to our well-being; 
while health and longevity, the most important 
of them all, are utterly disregarded. 

We need to be educated to a proper knowledge 
of the laws of hygiene. When Booker T. Wash- 
ington said he could take fifteen thousand bars 
of soap and solve the race problem a certain per 
cent, he uttered what every well-informed man 
on the Negro question knows to be a solemn 
truth. It is surprising to know how many people 
have an aversion to bathing. We need to be 
taught how to care for the body and check the 
fearful death rate that hinders our progress. We 
must be taught lessons of economy, that we may 
by thrift and energy accumulate wealth as other 
nations. We must be taught to refrain from 
whatever will impair the functional activity of 
the body or disturb the tranquillity of the soul's 
retreat. 

These to my mind are a few of the most im- 
portant steps to be taken by us in the solution 
of the problem that confronts us. But these 
changes can be wrought only by those whose care- 
ful training and superior intellectual and moral 
advantages have taught them to know the worth 
of a healthy body and its relation to the king- 



94 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

dom of Christ as the dwelling place of his Holy 
Spirit. This work can best be done by those 
who have been trained in a medical institution, 
where they have learned to have faith in God, 
faith in his promise that "Ethiopia shall stretch 
forth her hands unto God," and faith to believe 
that through them the promise will be fulfilled. 

Some of the men and women thus trained and 
thus prepared, morally, spiritually, and intellec- 
tually, are graduates of the Meharry Medical Col- 
lege, Nashville, Tennessee. It is therefore clearly 
apparent to all right-thinking minds that a most 
strategic position for the uplift of the race is held 
by President George W. Hubbard, and that Me- 
harry Medical College is a very important factor 
in the solution of the Negro problem. 



WHAT THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSION- 
ARY SOCIETY HAS DONE FOR THE 
COLORED GIRLS 

BY MISS BESSIE M. GARRISON, A.B. 

v 

Forty years ago the South represented a vast 
mission field so far as the colored women were 
concerned. The majority of these recently 
emancipated women were accustomed to little 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 95 

else but the roughest labor. Their training as 
housewives had indeed been limited. Now with 
freedom came the responsibility of home-making. 
These women must create the home life where 
the future race is to be reared, whence strong men 
and useful women may be sent forth to compete 
with a strong race. The responsibility was a 
tremendous one, and at first the women could 
poorly measure up to the standard. At this 
unique season the Woman's Home Missionary 
Society schools for colored girls were built in the 
Southern States — fourteen in all — wherein they 
may be trained for these duties. In these homes 
the girls live as sisters, sharing the duties and 
learning the art of home-making. But, above 
all, they are trained in the essentials of Christian 
womanhood. 

In the earlier days many of the girls came to 
the home from the most humble circumstances. 
Their homes were mere hovels. Learning the 
art of home-making, they returned carrying im- 
provement into their homes and into entire com- 
munities. Each young woman had a quickening 
influence upon some other. Thus it was that the 
inspiration of these homes long ago outgrew the 
boundaries of their walls. 

To-day these trained girls may be found as 
the wives of the leading ministers, doctors, and 
other prominent men of the race. They are 



96 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

home-makers and promoters of the social welfare 
in various communities of the South. That we 
have been able to produce so many homes where 
virtuous, cultured young women and noble young 
men are found is attributable in many instances 
to the influence of these fourteen homes. 

The need of this work increases as the years 
go by. The twentieth century brings to the 
women of America larger opportunities and re- 
sponsibilities. There comes a special call to the 
women to aid in Christianizing and civilizing the 
nations. As the Negro girls have awakened to 
this call to a larger life of service the necessity 
for direct help becomes more apparent. The lack 
of means has ever been and still is a great barrier 
between the average colored girl and an educa- 
tion. It is pathetic to see the faces of bright, 
capable girls who are just begging for a chance. 
In many instances the only chance comes through 
the Student Aid Fund of the Woman's Home 
Missionary Society. Many a gem would have 
remained unpolished, unfitted for its full useful- 
ness, had the opportunity for preparation not 
thus been given. 

This Student Aid Fund has had its greatest 
usefulness, perhaps, in those schools connected 
with our Freedmen's Aid schools and universities, 
for there the girls could prepare not only in the 
domestic arts and sciences taught in the homes, 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 97 

and in the grammar school courses connected, in 
many instances, therewith, but they had the full 
university course at their command and have been 
able to acquire the broadest training. 

Young women who have been thus assisted 
are now holding positions as teachers of domestic 
science and of dressmaking, as teachers in our 
best city schools, and as instructors and profes- 
sors in our colleges and universities. They are 
leaders in social and moral uplift. 

Again, the Woman's Home Missionary So- 
ciety has benefited colored girls through another 
avenue. As early as 1887 the work of estab- 
lishing deaconess homes was begun. In 1891 the 
first national deaconess home and training school 
was opened under the matchless leadership of 
Mrs. Jane B. Robinson. 

To-day there are forty-one deaconess institu- 
tions controlled by the Woman's Home Mission- 
ary Society. Seven of these include training 
schools as well as homes. Five are exclusively 
hospitals where young women are being trained 
as nurse-deaconesses. 

Scores of white women have been trained in 
these schools and are now working as deaconesses 
and missionaries, alleviating the suffering ones 
and rescuing the mistaken and straying ones in 
large cities. The following sketch from the re- 
port of Miss Mary E. Whitehead, superintendent 



98 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

of the E. W. Griffin Deaconess Home, Al- 
bany, New York, gives a clear idea of the life of 
the average deaconess: "Our parish workers 
have been untiring in their ministry of love — 
more than four thousand visits have been made 
during the year : to the stranger, the shut-in, the 
sick, the sorrowing, and the poor. We realize 
more and more the value of our Travelers' Aid 
work ; not a day passes without its plea for help 
of some kind. Perhaps it is a poor, tired mother 
with her little brood of fretful children, who looks 
appealingly into the face of 'the lady with white 
ties.' She has learned to understand what it 
means, and the glass of milk for the little ones or 
the cup of tea for the mother is quickly procured 
and freely given; the right train is found, and 
the refreshed mother, the children with freshly 
washed faces, are started for the end of the 
journey. Often the mother says in parting, 'O, 
Miss, I wish I could repay you !' But the deacon- 
ess is repaid as she remembers the promised re- 
ward for even the cup of cold water." 

We have this report from Lexington, Ken- 
tucky : "Miss Malone's work is to protect the girls 
of the mountains who come down to the city 
searching for work. As they have probably never 
been in a city before, they become easy prey for 
the agents of Satan. She also gives much time in 
caring for poor aged travelers, finding lodgings 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 99 

and food for them and starting them on their 
right trains/' 

No one familiar with conditions surrounding 
the Negro in our large cities and growing towns, 
both North and South, will hesitate in saying that 
this phase of work which is doing so much good 
among other races is even more needed among 
the Negroes. For if the virtuous, intelligent 
Negro must face great odds, then what must be 
the fate of the vicious and untrained ? The col- 
ored girls have seen this and have come in for 
their share of preparation. A number have quali- 
fied as deaconesses and missionaries and are now 
laboring in needy fields, uplifting the standard of 
Christ. Mrs. T. L. Tomkinson, the former sec- 
retary of the Bureau for the Colored Deaconesses, 
writes of one "lone woman" toiling night and day 
"seeking the lost lambs," and of another who 
does evangelistic work. She makes also a strong 
plea for better facilities to train colored deacon- 
esses. 

The demand for this kind of Christian service 
grows daily. Negroes are leaving the open-air 
life of country and village and crowding into the 
cities. This presents the opportunity and neces- 
sity for colored women to engage in city mission 
work. 

Not only the colored girls of America, but the 
girls of Africa also, have been benefited by this 



ioo METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Society. The Woman's Home Missionary So- 
ciety has ever been a feeder to foreign missionary 
work. To-day we find many products of this 
organization in Africa, toiling for the principles 
that they learned in the training schools of the 
Society in America. 

Of the homes that have thus contributed to 
foreign missionary work, Thayer Home in At- 
lanta, Georgia, stands foremost. Notable among 
the girls who have been inspired and equipped 
there are Miss Martha Drummond and Miss 
Anna Hall, two trained deaconesses who gave 
five or more years of service as deaconesses in 
Atlanta. These two young women responded to 
a call to Africa, and now each has charge of a 
training school there for the native girls. Thus 
the work that was founded primarily for the 
training of Negro womanhood in the Southern 
States of America has so spread that thousands 
of Negro girls in Africa are having the principles 
of noble womanhood, the arts of home-making, 
and the knowledge of Christ brought to them. 
Indeed we may say, 

"See how great a flame aspires, 
Kindled by a spark of grace !" 

Surely even the sainted Mrs. Rust did not fore- 
see such a future, yet she used her opportunity 
to sow the seed and she left results with God. 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 101 

May the noble women, her successors, be as true 
to the heavenly vision, as true to this open door 
in the Southland as was she ! 

"Saw ye not the cloud arise, 

Little as a human hand? 
Now it spreads along the skies, 

Hangs o'er all the thirsty land. 
Lo ! the promise of a shower 

Drops already from above ; 
But the Lord will shortly pour 

All the spirit of his love." 



THE SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN 
ADVOCATE 

BY THE EDITOR 

The Southwestern Christian Advocate, so 
nobly edited by Dr. R. E. Jones, is the most in- 
fluential religious paper circulated among the 
colored people in America. This paper is more 
widely read among the white people in the United 
States than any other paper edited and managed 
by colored men. For nearly forty-four years 
this religious journal has been going into the 
homes of our people, giving them information 
concerning various interests of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, other religious matters, and 
concerning things of general interest. Bishop 



102 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

John P. Newman, of precious memory, who was 
sent to Louisiana and Mississippi shortly after 
the Civil War as a pioneer preacher, was the first 
editor. He was succeeded by J. C. Hartzell, now 
Bishop to Africa. Then came Drs. M. W. Tay- 
lor, A. E. P. Albert, E. W. S. Hammond, I. B. 
Scott, now Bishop to Africa, and the present in- 
cumbent. The Southwestern Christian Advocate 
has been the companion of the preachers within 
the colored Conferences. For years it has been 
the welcome visitor to the Methodist parsonage. 
Many of the preachers owe their success in a 
measure to the thoughts and suggestions received 
from the columns of this splendid paper. 

Now and then you may find a preacher trying 
to do his work without the assistance of the 
Southwestern Christian Advocate, but upon in- 
vestigation you will discover that he is not up in 
the latest movements of the Church, and there- 
fore is not succeeding in his work. The people 
come to the Church expecting him to feed them 
in an intelligent and helpful way, but they go 
away disappointed. He keeps out of sight when 
intelligent and representative leadership is neces- 
sary. He fails where he is sent, and has to move 
nearly every year because he does not know how 
to lead his forces. You can easily see the result 
where preachers are constant readers of the 
Southwestern Christian Advocate. Their ser- 



EFFORTS TOWARD HIS UPLIFT 103 

mons are thoughtful, instructive, and inspiring. 
You will find them in the Sunday school and the 
Ep worth League. They are posted on all of the 
general movements of the Church, and are among 
the most influential ministers in the community. 
Laymen most loyal and active members of the 
Church are more liberal and can give an intelli- 
gent reason why they are in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. It is the duty of every minister 
and layman within the bounds of the colored 
Conferences to join Dr. Jones in the campaign 
to make the Southwestern self-supporting. There 
are many reasons why we should be proud of the 
paper and give it our most hearty support. 

The Book Committee and the publishers have 
done something for us that we should greatly 
appreciate, namely, the purchase of a Southwest- 
ern Building for the sum of twelve thousand 
dollars. It has been remodeled at a cost of four 
thousand dollars. This magnificent plant is 
located at New Orleans, Louisiana, with M. S. 
Davage, manager, supported by the necessary of- 
fice force. Let us not rest until we have at least 
twenty thousand cash paid-up subscribers. 



PART II 
HIS PRESENT NEED 



WHY THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH IS NEEDED AMONG OUR 
PEOPLE 

I 

BY THE REV. JOHN W. ROBINSON, D.D. 

The Negro has needed the help of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in the past, he needs it 
now, and will need it in the future. The Church, 
though already distinguished for its missionary 
zeal, needs the opportunity which the Negro race 
offers. The Church has never worked in a mis- 
sionary field which has yielded any larger returns. 

The Negro needed the Methodist Episcopal 
Church when in slavery to plead the cause of 
freedom; he needed the Church when the war of 
rebellion was upon the nation to inspire free men 
to fight for the freedom of other men : free white 
men to fight for the freedom of enslaved black 
men ; Northern white men to help rid the South- 
ern white men from the painful influence of the 
traffic in human beings. The Negro needed the 
Methodist Episcopal Church when the sanguinary 
struggle was over, the noise of musketry and can- 
non ceased, and "Old Glory" was unfurled amid 
107 



108 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

hallelujahs of praise, floating over a united coun- 
try established in the name of freedom and equal- 
ity. The Negro needed the old Church of my 
love and prayers to bring its training in citizen- 
ship, in the arts of civilization, and in the ethics 
of true religion; needed that there should be 
built for him schoolhouses and churches, and that 
these should be furnished with teachers and 
preachers. The Negro needed the Church to 
help prepare the leaders who should take correct 
notions of life and living to the masses of the 
race, and thus make the Negro a valuable and 
important member of society. The Negro needed 
the Church whose stand for the freedom of the 
Negro had been taken upon the theory that all 
men are created free and equal — the Church 
which had, while the Negro was in slavery, main- 
tained that the difference between the white and 
black races was rather a condition incident to the 
degrading influence of the slave traffic rather than 
any inherent inferiority; needed that Church to 
come and help the Negro to demonstrate beyond 
contradiction his ability to master the ethics of 
true religion and self-government. The Negro 
needed the Church to preach the doctrine of hope 
and patience during the period of reconstruction, 
while the race was being imposed upon by false 
leaders of both races. 

The Negro still needs the Methodist Episcopal 



HIS PRESENT NEED 109 

Church in helpful ministrations among them. 
The race still needs the touch of brotherhood, 
the inspiration of intellectual contact, the ideals of 
men whose sacrifices bless humanity and make 
them immortal, as well as we unquestionably need 
the humane interest and sympathy of this great 
white race in the struggle upward which the Ne- 
gro is making. The Negro still needs the Church 
to aid us in building schoolhouses and churches ; 
still needs the Church to prepare our sons and 
daughters to occupy these churches and schools. 

It is with a deep sense of gratitude we here ac- 
knowledge that the Methodist Church was true 
to the obligations which the past imposed. She 
never faltered in the faithful discharge of the 
obligation presented by the Negro's pathetic con- 
dition. She proved that her professions were 
both sincere and true. Amid ostracisms and 
actual suffering her noble sons and daughters 
endured the harsh criticisms of those who misin- 
terpreted their purposes, content to let the future 
demonstrate the righteousness of their cause. 
And, sad as it is also true, they, like their Master 
whose spirit they have imbibed and come to dem- 
onstrate, discovered that even among the Negroes 
themselves "they came unto their own and their 
own received them not ; but as many as received 
them, to them" were given the philosopher's 
stone, education and true Christianity. 



no METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

May the present unique conditions, which in 
themselves involve not alone the welfare of the 
Negro but of the nation as well, cease not to 
inspire the spirit of sacrifice in the hearts of the 
white race. For great as has been the advance- 
ment of the Negro, there is still a stupendous 
work to be done. The Negro wants to do all he 
can for himself, but he needs the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church to work by his side. 

II 

BY THE REV. W. R. BUTLER, D.D. 

In my humble opinion the South is the great- 
est field in the United States for Home Missions 
and Church Extension. This Board has done 
untold good for our people in the way of spread- 
ing the gospel and building churches. The gos- 
pel never would have gone into some parts of 
the Southland had it not been for the Methodist 
Episcopal Church sending out preachers through 
this organization and supporting them until the 
people were able to help themselves. There are 
many people still unreached in this Southern ter- 
ritory, and the old Church should not withdraw 
its help until all have been brought under the in- 
fluences of the gospel. Let the Church keep a 
good live man in the field such as they now have, 
and the collections will more than double. Other 



HIS PRESENT NEED in 

Methodist bodies have field agents all over the 
South doing good work ; but it goes without say- 
ing that the Methodist Episcopal Church is able 
to do more for our people in this country than 
any of the other denominations. 

Again, the South is the place for the Negro 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church. We are 
all here to stay. The present field agent, Dr. 
I. L. Thomas, is doing a great work. He is the 
right man in the right field. The collections 
have doubled since he has been at the head of the 
work. Our work is continually growing in the 
South; the people are realizing more and more 
the needs of the Church and they are coming to 
the rescue. Colored bishop or no colored bishop, 
it is the Church for our people. New railroads 
and towns are being opened and the Church 
should follow them, as our people are keeping up 
with these new additions. A large number of 
our members are moving to Oklahoma ; they are 
not joining our Church, because it is not there. 
Why not send the old Church there which is their 
choice? 

We appreciate what the Church has done for us 
in the past and what it will do in the future. 
Thank God, we are moving rapidly toward the 
mark of self-support. Just a little more pushing 
on the part of the heads of the Church when hold- 
ing our Conferences would be a great help to the 



ii2 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

field agent and to the pastors. I pray God that 
our Church will continue to work in this field 
among my people, for they need it more than any 
other people on earth. I wish Home Missions 
and Church Extension great success in this South- 
ern field for the next hundred years. 

Ill 

BY THE REV. L. M. HAGOOD, D.D., M.D. 

The answer to this question, to my mind, is 
not far to seek. We need the Church now for 
the same reason we needed it when it first came 
to us — to uplift us into Christian manhood and 
womanhood. Certainly a prodigious work has 
been accomplished, which challenges the admira- 
tion of Christian people everywhere, but the 
work has just begun. 

First, we need it for its doctrine and polity. 
These have been to us a savor of life unto life, 
because of their uniqueness, clearness, unques- 
tioned integrity, wholesomeness, and their ap- 
plicability to the wants of mankind everywhere 
and at all times. In these we find a general su- 
pervision which effectively reaches from the 
bishop to the probationer. This is necessary and 
coincides with intelligent consensus of opinion 
that the stronger should help the weaker. Per- 
sonal contact in the General, Annual, District, 



HIS PRESENT NEED 113 

and Quarterly Conferences with some of the pur- 
est characters and best trained intellects of Chris- 
tian people to be found anywhere has greatly 
helped us by instilling personal self-reliance and 
self-respect. 

Second, we need the Church because of its 
willingness and ability to help us. The marvel- 
ous work done could never have been accom- 
plished without such help. But financial help has 
not been the greatest help given us by the Church. 
The moral uplift has done more for the people 
than the money given. Methodism has done 
more along this line than time can reveal ; eternity 
alone will reveal it. The Church has taught us 
the amenities of social and civilized life without 
lowering the standard or abrogating the rules of 
personal liberty. We are therefore learning to 
stand up straight. Spiritually, we have been 
helped into the light of true Christian ethics with 
no attempt to resist the Spirit. 

The Church came to us when it was not popu- 
lar to do so, and has stayed with us until condi- 
tions have changed. Of course, funds came to 
the Church by virtue of having us as its wards, 
which it would never have received; and while 
my people are not now giving what they ought, 
it will be found that they gave more per capita, 
considering the restrictions color prejudice puts 
upon them — restricted in money-making to their 



ii4 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

own race, except when mutual laborers — than 
any other class of Methodists. The doctrine of 
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
man has been taught us as never before, and thus 
our happy relation to the Church militant and 
the Church triumphant dawned upon us as a 
pleasant noonday dream. If the Christlike ele- 
ment in the Church continues to predominate, 
henceforth the Church will so help my people that 
eventually she 

"Will lift them from this abject to sublime; 
This flux to permanent ; this dark to day, 
This foul to pure, this turbid to serene; 
This mean to mighty; and place them where 
Sin will deform no more. ,, 

IV 

BY THE REV. D. E. SKELTON 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is needed 
among our people, 

First, because it is cosmopolitan in spirit and 
in membership. Therefore it gives the weaker 
races in her membership an opportunity of as- 
sociation with the stronger races, and thus they 
have a chance to measure up to the highest Chris- 
tian civilization. 

Second, the Church should be among our peo- 
ple because her strength and influence are needed 



HIS PRESENT NEED 115 

to help those who are struggling to free them- 
selves from slavery. I have used the word 
"slavery" with the thought of bringing to the 
mind of the reader the appalling condition of our 
people. I am not unmindful of the work of the 
great emancipation, which broke the shackles and 
lifted the yoke of oppression that held four and 
one half millions as cattle. Yet, Lincoln only 
began a work which Christian America must com- 
plete. And with no desire to underrate or ignore 
what other Christian bodies and philanthropists 
are doing, I feel it would be a dark day for the 
colored people should the Methodist Episcopal 
Church withdraw her influence and support. 

Third, the Church is needed among our people 
because of her methodical ideas. Her method 
of doing things is simple, easy to be understood, 
and yet great things have been accomplished. 
We need the Church for her system of general 
superintendency and for her educational ideas. 
If the Church should do no more, her system of 
education among our people has done and is do- 
ing a work the good of which eternity alone can 
reveal. As I look at the masses of my people, 
unlettered, untaught, yet under the debasing con- 
ditions in which slavery left them — many to-day 
in worse conditions than their parents were in the 
days of slavery — I do not hesitate to say that the 
Church is much needed to help them in their 



n6 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

struggle upward. We need the strength of our 
Church in our Christian schools and her wise 
administration in our churches. The very fact 
of contact will give my people the highest con- 
ception of true Christian citizenship. We need 
the Methodist Episcopal Church for an incentive. 
The Church is well fitted and much needed to 
give that incentive which inspires a people to 
higher and nobler purposes in life. 

Lastly, the Methodist Episcopal Church is 
needed among our people for her broad stand for 
equality of justice to all men, and for her courage 
in teaching by precept and example the father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man, and 
for her relentless effort in trying to break down 
the spirit of race antipathy that exists in many 
parts of Christian America. 

V 

BY THE REV. JOSEPH WHEELER 

The Methodist Episcopal Church occupies a 
very close and vital relation to the colored race 
in America. For more than half a century it 
has been its stanch friend and defender. Its 
friendship and interest are not sentimental, but 
have been manifested and demonstrated in many 
ways, and by long years of strenuous and con- 
stant efforts to ameliorate its condition, civilly, 




Wiley University, Marshall, Tex. 



HIS PRESENT NEED 117 

morally, and educationally. This Church is 
needed by our people because it has stood and 
firmly stands and contends for the civil and po- 
litical rights of our race. Our constitutional 
rights are not only not recognized, but positively 
denied, earnestly opposed, and rudely wrested 
from us. The Methodist Episcopal Church has 
thousands of colored members and adherents in 
the South. It is reasonable to believe that it 
will use its influence to better the civil status of 
the colored race. The Church has a powerful 
political as well as religious following and influ- 
ence. Those who know its history know what 
an important and potent factor it was in securing 
the freedom of the slaves. An illustration: 
When President Lincoln was in a dilemma 
whether it would be wise to sign the Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, it was Bishop Matthew Simp- 
son, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who 
stood by his side and said, "Sign it, Lincoln, sign 
it." There are many problems to be solved and 
battles to be fought in which the voice of the 
Church is to be heard and its influence felt in the 
interest of the Negro. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is needed be- 
cause we are in a transitional state education- 
ally, industrially, materially, and socially. The 
Church's interests to assist in this great develop- 
ment are positive, helpful, and permanent. It 



n8 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

has been declared time and again, in pulpit and 
press and on the rostrum, that no race can reach 
its highest development intellectually, socially, 
materially, or industrially without brain culture. 
The Anglo-Saxon race is an illustration. It has 
reached a high degree of civilization the world 
over. Everywhere, on land and sea, in city and 
country, the Anglo-Saxon is seen in art, science, 
and literature. Scanning the past centuries we, 
as a race, can see nothing but clouds of mental 
darkness covering us; the specter of ignorance 
hanging over us. We call those years of the past 
our "semibarbaric period." But now the clouds 
are lifting and the specter is vanishing. What 
the Church has done in the way of mind develop- 
ment, industrial progress, social elevation is well 
known to all the world. Thousands of our peo- 
ple are now filling responsible, influential posi- 
tions in church and state, and their brilliant 
achievements and success have won the admira- 
tion and applause of men of all nationalities. The 
government has done much in bringing about 
this race transformation, but the Church, and es- 
pecially the Methodist Episcopal Church, has done 
more. It is pouring its mental, moral, and 
financial strength and treasures into the heart and 
brain of the colored race, lifting it from the 
depths of ignorance to the heights of intellectual 
culture. It takes money to lift a race, as well as 



HIS PRESENT NEED 119 

to run a corporation. While we have increased 
immensely in material wealth, we as a race are 
yet comparatively poor. We are not financially 
able to meet the obligations of the educational 
and religious work of our people. If the work 
is hindered for lack of money it will clog the 
wheels of our progress, retard our onward march, 
and the sad result will be retrogression. While 
we are moving toward the goal of self-support, 
we are glad and rejoice because of the interest 
the Church takes in the race. We have not 
reached that condition when we can say that we 
do not need to be in close connection with such a 
powerful combination of civilizing influences as 
the Methodist Episcopal Church affords. 

There are those who argue that the position of 
the colored man in the Church is one of subor- 
dination and humiliation, and that he is being 
taxed without being represented. This is an old 
and wornout statement, and logically untrue. 
From the bishopric down, the colored member- 
ship and adherents of the church are represented ; 
also in the General Conference, in the various de- 
partments, and on the general and special com- 
mittees. The Church is not a social institution. 
Its purpose is not to help its members to reach 
social but Christian perfection. The social side 
of the Church life is subordinate. Its great ob- 
ject is salvation from sin, the purification and ele- 



120 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

vation of the moral and spiritual life. To this 
end the Church works. If it can be done better 
by its policy of each race working fraternally 
together toward this end, it does not cast any re- 
flection upon itself and should make no apology. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church is needed 
among the colored race to exemplify and develop 
the spirit of true Christian brotherhood. The 
Church has and welcomes within its great fold 
men of all nationalities and races, irrespective of 
color or condition, not for financial gain but sal- 
vation. In its constitutional and governmental 
privileges and benefits no national or racial lines 
are drawn. All have equal ecclesiastical rights. 
The spirit and principle of Christian brotherhood 
is the heart of Christianity. For God is no re- 
specter of persons, and in Jesus Christ there is 
"neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncir- 
cumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, 
but Christ is all, and in all." We do not say that 
every member of the Church has this spirit of 
brotherhood. We concede that there are some 
who have the spirit of selfishness and prejudice, 
but this is true of all denominations. With all 
of our professed piety, human weakness is pain- 
fully evident, but, "he that is without sin, let 
him cast the first stone." The Christian heart 
and sentiment of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is right. She cannot be loyal to God, nor to her 



HIS PRESENT NEED 121 

past record, without possessing and manifesting 
sincerely the spirit of divine fatherhood and 
Christian brotherhood. We believe our mother 
Church will be true to this ideal Christian princi- 
ple, and instead of discouraging its exercise will 
more and more, though at perhaps a great sacri- 
fice, foster and develop it in her communion. 

These are some of the reasons why this Church 
is needed among our people. 

VI 

BY THE REV. G. W. W. JENKINS, D.D. 

I am asked to tell why the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is needed among the colored people. I 
assign the following reasons : 

1. Because it is the Church of all the people on 
earth, regardless of their complexion of skin or 
mass of wealth. She has no respect of nationali- 
ties, race, or previous condition in life. She 
stands by her principles. A changed heart fol- 
lowed by a radical change of character, profes- 
sion of faith in Jesus Christ, and subscription to 
the rules of the Church fit an individual for mem- 
bership in her fold; and like Jesus Christ, her 
living leader, she is going about doing good to 
the souls of men. The Church has shown the 
spirit of Jesus Christ; she has never seen a mo- 
ment when she was willing to compromise with 



122 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the spirit of caste, but like her Founder, she has 
condescended to reach down to the people of low 
estate and lift them up to a higher plane, and this 
she has done for the black people in and out of 
her fold. No greater reason can be assigned 
why we need the grand old Church among the 
black people than this : she has the spirit of Christ 
in her. 

2. We need the Methodist Episcopal Church 
among the black people because of her educa- 
tional spirit. She believes in Christian education 
for all the people, and she expects the black men 
in her ministry to meet the same requirements as 
other men. But in this, however, she has made 
provision to help the worthy attain to this stand- 
ard. Think what this means. There are no such 
opportunities offered the black people anywhere 
as in the Methodist Episcopal Church. They 
come in contact with men and women of learning 
that they could not have otherwise, and nowhere 
else in the world as in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church; and being thus educated they are made 
capable of enjoying the immunities and posses- 
sions that they could not have got anywhere else 
on earth. 

3. We need the Methodist Episcopal Church 
among the black people because of the high stand- 
ard of morality and purity of life among her 
membership and ministry. The Church does not 



HIS PRESENT NEED 123 

believe in two codes of morals, one for the white 
wing and one for the black wing. She requires 
that all be blameless in life — that Christian purity 
shall be the standard for all. And having the 
Church among the black people, they must feel 
the touch of the Church's hand. 

4. We need the Methodist Episcopal Church 
among the black people because of the financial 
and business training they get in church life, 
which is needed in church as well as in state. A 
church without a business system is not in accord 
with the scriptural idea. 

5. We need the Methodist Episcopal Church 
among the black people because it believes in the 
spirit of expansion and progressive Christianity. 
Christ himself was an expansionist, and he be- 
lieved in progressive Christianity; and thus the 
missionary spirit sending the stream abroad by 
deepening the wells at home, which is the surest 
way of expanding and widening her borders. 
The black people need this teaching, and they get 
it in the Methodist Episcopal Church as nowhere 
else on earth. 



124 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
AMONG THE NEGRO RACE 

BY THE REV. B. F. ABBOTT, D.D. 

The Christian Church never had a better op- 
portunity for missionary service in America, or 
perhaps elsewhere, than that furnished it by the 
abolition of slavery in the United States in 1863. 
The problem of distance that so often enters into 
the salvation of the peoples across the waters 
was eliminated. The Negro, in the providence of 
God, had been brought to the shores of America, 
a raw heathen, and placed amid civilization. The 
question of the missionary's understanding the 
language of the people was solved. For when 
the Church's opportunity came the Negro had 
been here long enough to have some idea of the 
English language. In addition to the elimination 
of distance and the advantage of a common lan- 
guage, oppression had prepared him for anything 
and anybody that offered relief to his condition. 

Ignorant, superstitious, penniless, with dis- 
torted ideas of morality, helpless, enthusiastic, 
without leadership — such was the mass of four 
and one half millions of black humanity at the 
very door of the Christian Church. This condi- 
tion called for missionary service. Of the de- 



HIS PRESENT NEED 125 

nominations that answered the call, the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church has given good account of 
its stewardship among these people. We simply 
indicate some of the evidences of its marvelous 
work and helpfulness to them. 

Safe and sane leadership for a race in the con- 
dition in which slavery left the Negro cannot be 
produced in a day, nor by any race without much 
patient help and toil. It takes time, culture, 
training, character, and struggles to produce lead- 
ers for a race. About one and a half generations 
have passed since slavery. Conditions and envi- 
ronments here in America have given us great 
and weighty problems and an opportunity for 
an heroic struggle. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church has been the good Samaritan to this be- 
lated race, and out of her efforts to train, educate, 
and culture him has come the best and most sane 
leadership that the race has. 

No people, whatever else they may possess, are 
squarely upon their feet without a strong, healthy, 
and robust moral life. If the moral ideals are 
low, so will the people be; if high, the life will 
express itself accordingly. Almost from every 
angle the moral ideal that the Negro received 
under slavery had to be changed. He must get 
the correct notion and spirit of a moral life some- 
where. Mighty influences have been brought to 
bear upon him since slavery to put him upon his 



126 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

feet. The Christian teachers sent by the Chris- 
tian Church have not taught the letter alone, but 
they have been living epistles in the virtues that 
uplift men. When considering our moral assets 
and the source whence they came we must 
enumerate the saintly men and women of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church who have ostracized 
themselves to give us the best touch of civiliza- 
tion. 

Prejudice has hindered both the Negro and the 
white man in America. It has intrenched itself 
behind two, in some respects, imaginary walls — 
the inferiority of the weaker race and social equal- 
ity. There is prejudice in both races of the very 
meanest kind, and there are those on both sides 
to intensify it, but — and I state no theory, but a 
fact — there is less prejudice against the white 
man in the Negro who has been under the Chris- 
tian influence of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
and similar organizations than there is in the 
Negro under purely racial influences; and vice 
versa, there is less prejudice against the Negro in 
the white man who has honestly tried to help him 
to Christian citizenship than in the white man 
who has done nothing in this respect. It is not a 
matter of inferiority of social equality, but a mat- 
ter of the better understanding of each other. 
Here lies the key to the solution of most 
problems— the understanding of them. The most 



HIS PRESENT NEED 127 

of our ghosts, spooks, and bogies vanish when 
we tarry long enough to investigate them. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church furnishes the best 
opportunity known for both these races to come 
to a better understanding of each other. 

The glory of the Negro members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church is the system of Freed- 
men's Aid schools established for the education 
and training of the race. These schools are not 
operated on denominational lines, but on the 
broadest principles of Christianity, thereby bene- 
fiting the entire race. Gammon Theological 
Seminary is the only school that the race has mak- 
ing a specialty of theology. Meharry Medical, 
Dental, and Pharmaceutical Colleges cannot be 
duplicated anywhere by the race. Long before 
Dr. Booker T. Washington did his noble work 
the Methodist Episcopal Church was in the busi- 
ness of teaching the Negro the dignity of labor 
and training him along almost every line of in- 
dustry that the wizard of Tuskegee is advising 
to-day. 

The greatest influence in this nation in behalf 
of the Negro since his emancipation has been 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her press has 
stood out bravely in his defense, pleading for fair 
play and a man's chance. It has brought to him 
friends and help and has warded off much injus- 
tice. The Negro owes much to the Methodist 



128 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Episcopal Church. Let him show his gratitude 
by helping to further those principles of good 
character and right living which the Church has 
taught him. 



r A CALL TO DUTY 

BY THE REV. J. W. E. BOWEN, D.D., PH.D. 

A careful study of the needs of the Negro of 
to-day discloses some facts that quicken medita- 
tion. In the first place, the Church among us is 
not so attractive in these days as it was forty 
years ago. True, the preacher is still the leader 
among the people. This is not due to the uni- 
versal and invariable superiority of the minister 
over other leaders, but very largely to the inborn 
and ineradicable feeling in the Negro that the 
minister is the representative of God, and there- 
fore he must be revered and followed. This 
fact, with the other one that there are other places 
of amusement and intellectual opportunity, may 
explain in some measure the falling off of the 
great crowds from the churches. Formerly the 
people crowded into the churches for amusement 
as well as spiritual improvement. There was no 
other center for the gathering of the people. To- 
day the theaters, concert halls, lecture platforms, 
public forum, schools and colleges are open to the 



HIS PRESENT NEED 129 

people, and they are in touch through the daily, 
weekly, and quarterly press with the best thought 
of the day. And it is a lamentable fact that 
many preachers have fallen behind in this race 
for the applause of the people. Some have the 
stupidity to charge this falling off from their 
ministrations to unmasked deviltry, whereas in 
some cases it is due to unmitigated ignorance in 
the pulpit. Many times the writer has entered 
a church unobserved and, seating himself in an 
inconspicuous place, heard the ranting and pant- 
ing of a vociferator in the pulpit who flattered 
himself with the notion that he was doing God's 
service by creating a dusty and musty furor in 
the unsophisticated pews. Throughout all the 
roar and sweat of physical and bodily exercise 
we saw and read on the walls of the pulpit, just 
above the head of the blind leader, the ominous 
call, "Wanted — A man to preach the gospel in 
this pulpit." Brethren, is it not time for this 
race to have a different sort of preaching? 

In the next place — let us speak plainly here-— 
the failure of the ministry to keep up with the de- 
mands of the age. There are some noble spirits 
among them who keep abreast in thought and 
spiritual and social leadership. But what are they 
among so many ? To be convinced, visit a gath- 
ering of our preachers of any denomination, and 
in a body of fifty young men you will not find ten 



130 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

young preachers, under thirty years, among them. 
The fact stares all denominations in the face that 
comparatively few young, thoughtful men are 
entering the ministry. And, what is still worse, 
the most of our men who are doing yeoman 
service are on the other side of fifty. 

Too many young men postpone their entrance 
into the ministry to a late period in life. There 
are not enough boys. Most of our preachers 
who are applying for ordination are called when 
they are old ; for a man for the ministry, except 
in rare cases, is old at thirty years. But, to com- 
plicate the situation, most of our young men 
marry under twenty-five years of age, and after 
they have a family of three or four children they 
seek admittance into a school to prepare for the 
ministry. Does not God call men early into his 
ministry as he did formerly? Brethren, there is 
criminality somewhere; it is the criminality of 
stupidity or neglect, or both. 

Let us raise another question at this point. 
Are our women lacking in piety and spiritual 
power, that they do not consecrate their unborn 
unto God's service, as did Hannah and the mother 
of Jeremiah and others ? Are we producing a set 
of mothers whose only care is dress and so- 
ciety and who neglect the greatest spiritual op- 
portunity of the age to bring forth a Samuel 
unto the Lord? Well may we exclaim, as did 



HIS PRESENT NEED 131 

Napoleon, that the greatest need of our people is 
mothers ! 

This delay in preparing for God's work of 
leading a people reveals a deeper fact that is to be 
condemned. The early marriages that are so 
prevalent in the South are sometimes the revela- 
tion of a love of ease and pleasure that ap- 
proaches sensuality. Many are free from the re- 
motest suggestion of this thought, while others 
are not unspotted with this nauseating fly. The 
preacher must not consult flesh and blood; he 
must answer to the call and go forward. 

Moreover, there is a positive loss, that cannot 
be computed in figures, to the men called of God 
who delay their preparation beyond their earliest 
days. Men who thus hesitate, hunting for jobs 
that will pay, they say, or who dilly-dally, lose 
their intellectual elasticity and spiritual respon- 
siveness. They become dull, methodical, calcu- 
lating machines. Faith is deadened, enthusiasm 
paralyzed, zeal chilled, and the open spirit is sup- 
planted by a money-getting spirit that attempts 
to weigh the eternal blessings of the kingdom in 
the corroding and corrupting scales of "What is 
there in it for me?" Such men are failures in 
any walk in life, and they should not enter into 
God's holy place to deal in things divine. Cool, 
calculating reason and burning faith cannot re- 
sist the thought that these men go into the min- 



132 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

istry as a last resort, that they may find a life of 
honor and ease. 

We want young unmarried men in the schools 
to prepare for the ministry. We will receive all 
who come in the name of the Lord, but we must 
have young unmarried men. 

Is there not a suggestion here for educators? 
Can we not get back to the days when our schools 
were considered schools for the preparation of 
preachers and teachers? Gammon Theological 
Seminary is really a postgraduate institution. We 
are to receive the men for the ministry who have 
graduated from the other schools. But where 
are the young preachers? Are they in school? 
A new duty looks us in the eye; its voice cries 
pathetically and threateningly, Where are the 
young men for this ministry? Lands, bank 
books, trades, professions, positions, teachers, 
doctors, lawyers, and business men are well and 
good, but without young stout, broad-minded, 
consecrated, well-trained men, dead to the world, 
and who hear always the "Woe is me if I preach 
not," the black and prophetic word will appear 
upon the temple of this race, "Ichabod." Where 
are the young men? 



HIS PRESENT NEED 133 

SELF-SUPPORT MEANS MORE 
RECOGNITION 

BY THE EDITOR 

One of the most important questions confront- 
ing the colored man in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is self-support. The time has come 
when we should make a vigorous effort in that 
direction. Because of the ignorance and poverty 
of the race the colored people need help from 
others in order that the millions of our people 
unsaved may be brought into the kingdom of 
Christ. But we believe that there are not a few 
places among the colored membership receiving 
missionary aid that are fully able to be self-sup- 
porting, and would not feel the loss of the little 
help they are receiving if they were left to care 
for the minister sent to serve them. As long as 
you feed a child he will make no effort to feed 
himself. Where a charge is able to support itself 
the attention of the people should be called to that 
fact. Why should grown-up men receive money 
to aid them when there are so many helpless 
children needing aid? A man whose hand is 
forever stretched out for help is of but little force 
anywhere. He is treated as a child as long as 
he remains among the dependent class. 

As long as the colored membership of the Meth- 



134 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

odist Episcopal Church holds out its hand for un- 
necessary assistance, so long will it be treated as 
a child. Charges in the missionary cradle that 
are able to walk should be put on their feet, and 
when they find out there is no one to carry them, 
from necessity they will walk. Those who are 
in the habit of expecting help even when they do 
not need it will continue the practice so long as 
it is given. 

We are not old enough to support ourselves in 
everything, but we believe that some charges 
would grow faster if the missionary money were 
taken away and used in missionary fields ready 
to receive the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 
only way we can ever hope to be the equal of our 
white brother in the Church is by self-reliance and 
self-support. We must discover, and that early, 
that true happiness is not in receiving the boun- 
ties of others, but in doing something to help 
others. We have done amazingly well, every- 
thing considered. We cannot hope further un- 
til we assume larger responsibilities. We must 
make ourselves worthy of recognition and respect. 
Character, Christian education, service, and lib- 
eral contribution will open every door to the col- 
ored membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Everywhere our people are being urged 
to liberal contribution, and as an evidence of 
progress assume more responsibility and ask no 



HIS PRESENT NEED 135 

one to help us to carry anything that by effort 
and sacrifice we are able to carry ourselves, and 
to ask for no assistance until we have done our 
uttermost. 

Let our district superintendents and pastors in 
long-established districts and charges give the 
people their entire service and look to them for 
support. Let the missionary money go into mis- 
sion districts and charges where help is abso- 
lutely necessary. Let no man receive missionary 
money who by doing his duty can live without it. 

There are seven million colored people in the 
United States that are out of the kingdom of 
Christ. There is no mission field in the home- 
land that deserves more consideration than these 
millions. American slavery kept them in igno- 
rance and superstition for two and a half cen- 
turies; still, with the efforts of the Christian 
members of the race and the aid of the Church, 
we hope to soon lower this large number in con- 
siderable degree. 



THE COLORED RACE IN AMERICA AS A 
MISSION FIELD 

BY THE REV. J. S. TODD,, D.D. 

The Negroes were brought to this country and 
made slaves by the white people. In process of 



136 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

time sentiment and conditions confined slavery 
practically to the Southern section of this coun- 
try. And it came to pass that the Christian 
people of the North believed slavery to be wrong, 
and began agitating the question of freedom for 
the slaves. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, at that time 
an aggressive and progressive denomination, 
through many of the leading ministers and mem- 
bers lifted her voice against slavery as a great 
evil, and said that the buying, selling, or holding 
of slaves to be used as chattels is contrary to the 
laws of God and nature. 

From the time of their importation into this 
country, to 1843, the Negroes had but little op- 
portunity for development and progress in re- 
ligious manhood and citizenship. At the General 
Conference of 1844, in the city of New York, 
slavery was practically ended in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The majority of that General 
Conference voted that slavery was wrong, and 
that the members of the Church must desist from 
the evil. One of the bishops had by marriage 
come into possession of slaves ; and when the case 
of the bishop was brought up before the Confer- 
ence the majority vote was that "Bishop James 
Osgood Andrew desist from the exercise of his 
office as bishop so long as this impediment re- 
mains." From 1844 to 1865 the Negroes had 




Group 5 

Rev. M. W. Dogan, Ph.D. Rev. J. M. Cox, D.D. 

Rev. S. A. Peeler, D.D. J. B. F. Shaw, Ph.D. 



HIS PRESENT NEED 137 

less privileges and less opportunity for the devel- 
opment of religious manhood and good citizen- 
ship. 

Shortly after the General Conference of 1844, 
because of the decision of that body, Bishop An- 
drew and about five hundred thousand members 
withdrew from the ministry and membership of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and formed 
themselves into the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, a Church whose members and ministers 
believed in human slavery and held Negroes as 
slaves. This condition continued until after the 
civil war of 1861-65. 

When the Negroes were set free by the im- 
mortal Abraham Lincoln, or the civil war ended 
which brought about their freedom, their condi- 
tion is too well known to describe it here. It is 
sufficient for me to say what others have said, 
"When freed, the Negroes were the most illiterate 
and poorest people of this land." This is verified 
by a statement found in an article written by Dr. 
R. E. Jones, editor of the Southwestern Chris- 
tian Advocate. Dr. Jones says: "When Bishop 
Thomson organized the Mississippi Mission 
Conference, December 25, 1865, among the col- 
ored people, there was not a colored minister in 
that body that could write well enough to act as 
secretary; for when the bishop asked the ques- 
tion, 'Who will you have for secretary?' one of 



138 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the colored brethren replied, 'Bishop, one of 
those white men will have to act as secretary, for 
none of us can.' " They were all poor and un- 
educated. All of their time and the time of the 
people before them for generations had belonged 
to the white people of this country, and the Ne- 
groes were not allowed the privilege of an educa- 
tion. 

The colored people are human beings, God's 
creatures as other people are, but they had been 
denied an education and they had no money. 
They were free, but were lacking in all these 
things. Still, they were willing to learn and 
they were willing to work. The whites to whom 
they had been slaves did not believe in their free- 
dom, and though they had all that was left after 
the war except the bodies of the Negroes, they did 
not help the Negroes very much, but in many in- 
stances objected to the help extended to the f reed- 
men by others. 

In this awful and pitiful condition the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church sent missionaries into this 
field, for the same reasons and on the same prin- 
ciples that the Church sends missionaries to any 
other people in any part of the world, and that is 
to lift up, to make better, and to save. In a little 
while, despite the opposition from within and 
without, some churches and schoolhouses were 
built, and with the ministers in the pulpit preach- 



HIS PRESENT NEED 139 

ing the gospel and teachers in the schoolroom 
imparting instruction to the Negroes, the work 
began to develop, and it is still in progress. 

Under the leadership and direction of such men 
as Dr. R. S. Rust and Bishops Gilbert Haven 
and J. M. Walden, and scores of others who came 
into this field and worked, great have been the 
achievements by the Church in the past forty-five 
years. Since 1865 there have been organized 19 
Conferences and one Mission, and we now have 
more than 2,000 ministers. We have over 
300,000 lay members in the Church, with 3,569 
churches valued at $5,939,229, and 1,188 par- 
sonages valued at $742,383. 

There are at present 24 schools among the 
colored people, with buildings and grounds valued 
at $1,452,698, of which $1,364,698 is owned by 
the Freedmen's Aid Society. These institutions 
are planted in the several "black belts" of the 
South. The Methodist Episcopal Church has 
to-day within her membership a larger number 
of colored people than any other connectional 
Church having all races in its membership, and 
this is so because of much encouragement to them 
toward manhood and Christian citizenship by the 
Church. 

When the Church began her mission work 
among the colored people of the South there were 
none of the colored people able to teach school, as 



140 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

was seen by the condition in the organization 
of the Mississippi Mission Conference. To-day 
the majority of the presidents and teachers of the 
twenty-four schools of the Freedmen's Aid So- 
ciety are colored, and the majority of these re- 
ceived their education from these several institu- 
tions. 

In planting these schools for us the Church has 
done the right thing to hasten the day of self- 
help. The colored people receive training from 
the most ordinary to the highest branches of 
learning. Our boys and girls are completing 
courses of study from the grass-planter to the 
lawyer, physician, and the trained minister of 
the gospel. 

The colored people are carrying out the lessons 
of self-help. The report of 1908 shows that 
they paid for ministerial support for the year 
$776,492, and gave to the regular benevolent col- 
lections of the Church about $50,000. Nearly 
$16,000 of this amount was contributed for the 
foreign missions of the Church. 

We have not the space to speak of all our 
institutions as individual schools, though all the 
schools have done and are doing well. 

The Gammon Theological Seminary at Atlanta, 
Georgia, founded in 1883, from the very begin- 
ning, under the presidency of Dr. W. P. Thir- 
kield, has been unsurpassed by any other in the 



HIS PRESENT NEED 141 

education and moral improvement and religious 
leadership among the colored people of the South. 
From 1883 to 1900, the seventeen years of Dr. 
ThirkiekTs unflinching, self-sacrificing service to 
and for our race, the Church through him and 
Gammon Theological Seminary accomplished 
more and laid the foundation upon which more 
will yet be accomplished in this mission field than 
possibly in any other department of the Church's 
work among the colored people. After these 
years of service he was succeeded by Dr. L. G. 
Atkinson, who advanced the interests of the 
school and broadened the scope of the work until 
his death in 1905. 

The work and management of this great school 
was continued for over three years under the 
presidency of Dr. J. W. E. Bowen, a Negro, a 
cultured Christian man, who received his training 
at New Orleans and Boston Universities. 
The honor was bestowed with reason and in 
the natural order of things. As the colored 
people are fitted for these higher positions of 
honor and trust by the Church, the Church has 
and it is expected that the Church will continue 
to lay these responsibilities upon the colored peo- 
ple. Under Dr. Bowen, as under Drs. Thirkield 
and Atkinson, the Gammon Theological Semi- 
nary did more than the ordinary work of educa- 
tion. It trains men for better leadership of the 



142 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

race. It is imparting to men the knowledge of 
the value of moral character, Christian manhood, 
and ideal citizenship. This work of the Church 
in some degree is being done for the race in all of 
the denominations among the colored people of 
the South. And the good work of giving light 
and life will continue while the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church believes in the doctrine of the 
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. 



THE FIELD FOR THE METHODIST EPIS- 
COPAL CHURCH AMONG THE COL- 
ORED PEOPLE IN THE SOUTH 



BY THE REV. N. D. SHAMBORGUER, B.S. 

Already the crisis is on us, and the eyes of 
the world are scanning the records of the Church 
to see if she hesitates, when she should speak 
with authority; if she gropes blindly, where she 
should point out the luminous way to a people 
that have been suffering now many a year. 

No other Church on this continent is responsi- 
ble for the spiritual culture and in a large meas- 
ure for the higher education of so vast numbers 
of our population as is the Methodist Episcopal 



HIS PRESENT NEED 143 

Church. Its past triumphs and present greatness 
impose upon it transcendent responsibilities. 
There is no graver problem in America to-day 
than that which relates to the Negro, his treat- 
ment, his development, his destiny. When we 
think of the numbers — probably more than ten 
millions — their rapid, relative increase, their un- 
deniable influence in the politics, in the morals, 
and in the destiny of the nation, we cannot but 
be impressed with the greatness of this factor in 
solving our national problem. 

The destinies of the white man and the black 
man are surely united in this country. Let me 
say the destiny of the nation is united with the 
destiny of the colored race. 

A strange history this race has had, strangely 
marked by the intervention of the providential 
hand, and perhaps a stranger history lies yet be- 
fore it; and no Church is so closely identified 
with this race and so involved in the solving of 
this great problem as is the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. No Church, let us say with something 
of satisfaction and gratitude, has ever done so 
much for the Negro as this Church has done. 
The evangelistic and educational work she has 
done among us, the millions of money she has 
thus expended, constitute the brightest page in 
our history. 

Glorious, then, is the record thus made by the 



144 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Freedmen's Aid and the Missionary Societies. 
They have not done too much — would that it 
were more! — for no work the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church has ever done has produced larger 
and better results and more fully met with the 
approval of the Master. But the work of the 
Church among the Negroes is by no means ac- 
complished. No, it has but just begun. The fu- 
ture opens to our Church a work with the Negro 
race full of inspiration and promise. Whatever 
difficulties may lie in our way as a Church 
in this direction — difficulties calling for broad 
and statesmanlike views, difficulties demanding 
Christlike qualities of mind and heart — will 
surely be overcome if met and grappled with. 
The purpose of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is the highest interest of all races ; and its aim is 
to raise men above the prejudice of race. It 
always contemplates the fact that all men have 
mutual interests as neighbors, as fellow citizens, 
as belonging to the same country, as the same 
commonwealth, as the same Christian brother- 
hood. 

Does any statesman expect to see the time 
when the two races will occupy different geo- 
graphical sections and thus escape contact with 
each other? Since, then, it seems probable, if 
not desirable, that they will continue to live in 
close neighborhoods as they now do, true states- 



HIS PRESENT NEED 145 

manship demands that they should adjust their 
relations to this aspect of the case. And this 
makes clear the point that their relations should 
always be such as to destroy rather than perpet- 
uate any race prejudice or antagonism that may 
exist among either class. Separation by prefer- 
ence may be wisely practiced under existing cir- 
cumstances, but whatever separation there is in 
the house of worship it should be voluntary, and 
only with a view to the highest good of all parties 
concerned. 

The Church says, let Christian wisdom and 
Christian experience adjust all mutual and merely 
social relations, but let the word "exclusion" 
nowhere appear and the spirit and practice of 
compulsory exclusions nowhere obtain in the work 
of the Master, south, north, east, or west, the 
wide world over. This is the avowed policy of 
our Church, distinctly declared by the General 
Conference, and this makes its place unique in 
this Southland. 

II 

BY THE REV. W. SCOTT CHINN, A.B. 

Immediately after the close of the war the 
Methodist Episcopal Church saw fit to come 
South and take a hand in the work of redeeming 
a race just set free. That was a wise and right- 
eous act, despite the present-day harangue and 



146 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

bickerings of those who are ever ready to con- 
demn anything and everything not to their liking. 

As proof of its wisdom one need only to "come 
and see/' open his eyes, look around and behold 
results, marvelous and wonderful, already ac- 
complished by the colored people under the care 
and tutelage of the Church. This tutelage was 
a necessity then, and to-day it is still a necessity, 
and an imminent one, for they are yet in the 
wilderness. The shackles of slavery are only 
broken, not off; to rid them of these is now the 
greater task. 

The pillar of cloud that has led them thus far, 
both by day and night, during all these years, must 
continue with them. To leave now would mean 
irretrievable loss and disaster to a struggling 
people. For, while excellent work has been ac- 
complished, yet greater things must be done ere 
this people can be or ought to be left alone ; and 
if the Church continues to help and encourage 
them it will be done. 

We have great faith in her and are ready to 
trust her. The field is ready. Race persecution, 
lynch and mob rule; economic and vital ques- 
tions, such as disfranchisement; poor and scant 
school facilities ; unjust courts, together with the 
restlessness that comes from all of this and other 
causes, such as a desire upon the part of the 
leading people of the South to keep the colored 



HIS PRESENT NEED 147 

man down, are making the field "full ripe" for a 
rich and full harvest to the Church or people who 
will step forward and take a stand for this race. 

Because of its already well-known attitude to 
the race question, no other Church better than the 
Methodist Episcopal can afford to be this "cham- 
pion." The forty-odd years spent in helping to 
prepare the race should be marked Volume I, 
and now let the Church begin Volume II, and 
while I am not a prophet, nor the son of one, I 
do say that Volume III will follow as a natural 
sequence, if it is done. 

Examine carefully the journals of the several 
colored Conferences ; study the statistics, and see 
if the South is not a very inviting and needy 
field, and one that yields results of which the 
Church need not feel ashamed. 

Let the Church continue in the path of the 
fathers in its work toward the Negro, and heed 
not the "false prophet" who will foretell of dis- 
aster, and that he is everything else but a man; 
bear with him kindly, be open and frank with 
him ; cheer him, for he is a brother. Let her con- 
tinue her policy of teaching and preaching to 
him ; honor her own sons and daughters who labor 
with and for him, as she does those who go to 
China, Japan, India. He is loyal — that has been 
fully tested ; docile, meek, and patient. Stand 
by him and his; he has a threefold burden to 



148 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

bear. As God prospers the Church it is her duty 
to stay by him and with him. The field is ripe 
for our Church, and she has just reason to feel 
proud of her work, for she has not only helped 
her own among the colored people, but every 
other Church among the colored people has been 
helped and made better for her being here; and 
then so perfect and complete has been her train- 
ing that not one of her graduates coming from 
her Freedmen's Aid schools has been guilty of 
the "nameless crime," nor gone to the peniten- 
tiary, nor been hanged. This alone ought to be 
an argument strong and convincing for the con- 
tinuance of her very wise policy of education 
and religious training among so deserving a 
people. 

That there may be need of some change in the 
method and manner of carrying on the work in 
this "new South" is highly possible; but God for- 
bid that there will ever be any change in the 
object and purpose to be attained, that is, the 
development of a full and perfect man, one capa- 
ble in every way to take his place by the side of 
other men. To this end the South offers to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church a better field than 
any of the foreign fields, and with less attending 
ills and aches, and with less sacrifices, for verily 
the South is being Northernized, and there ought 
not and must not be any sounding of a retreat, 



HIS PRESENT NEED 149 

but a call to arms, with a "Forward, march !" 
and the land taken for God and humanity. 

Ill 

BY THE REV. J. S. THOMAS, A.M. 

One has said, "If you want a field of labor, 
you may find it anywhere." The truth of this 
statement has often been verified, but it is also 
true that there are fields whose crying needs are 
so great that without waiting for the arrival of 
those who would labor they are saying, "Come 
over and help us." Such was the condition of 
the colored people of the South when the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church found them. They were 
wounded and bleeding and dying, and were ready 
and waiting for the sympathetic touch of those 
who followed in the wake of one of the most 
destructive wars known in the annals of human 
history. The Church found a people that were 
as susceptible to impressions as children. They 
were naturally religious and believed in the saving 
power of the beloved Jesus. They had no pre- 
conceived ideas against religion, nor were they 
ashamed of the gospel of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth. They were, therefore, 
ready, willing, and waiting for those whom they 
regarded as little less than divine. 

For all this, the godly men and women sent out 



ISO METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

by the Church had no pleasant task before them. 
The work they came to do spurned the efforts of 
any but heroes. They came at a time that tried 
the souls of men. They came while it was yet 
dangerous to lift one's head above the trenches 
dug out to protect the weary warrior from the 
bullets of the enemy, and while yet every swamp 
and even clumps of bushes were hiding places for 
would-be assassins, and when even hedges and 
fence rows might be suspected. Those that came 
were from some of the best families in Method- 
ism, some of whom were brought up in luxury, 
yet they willingly came among us, and became 
a part of us that they might help. Some of 
them have lain themselves down in their last 
sleepy and their bodies rest in the soil to which 
they had given their service, and some are among 
us still. Noble men and women they are. God 
bless them! 

The people that came to us labored hard and 
succeeded well. The results of their labors can 
plainly be seen everywhere. More than a score 
of schools and colleges packed to overflowing 
with students, thousands of churches, more than 
two thousand ministers, and over a quarter of a 
million of members testify to this fact. 

As a result of the work of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church among the colored people in the 
South, remarkable changes have taken place 



HIS PRESENT NEED 151 

along every line. The house has a real charm 
about it. There, real joy is tasted, the tenderest 
relations exist, and from it are now going boys 
and girls with a true idea of life. In the home a 
healthy moral atmosphere prevails, regard for 
truth and honesty cultivated, a contrast between 
inebriety and temperance drawn ; and while there 
is still room for improvement, unchastity and in- 
fidelity are looked upon not only as a sin against 
God, a crime against society, and an insult against 
the dignity of God's greatest creatures, but as 
destructive of every fiber of man's finer nature, 
paralyzing high and noble ambitions, and con- 
signing man to the depths of moral degradation. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church still has a 
mission among the colored people in the South, 
and the end is not in sight; and as long as the 
spirit of Christ characterizes the Church it will 
find work here until time ceases to be. This is 
not an experiment but a well-tried field — a field 
that has yielded abundantly. The people among 
whom the Church labors were not proselyted, but 
born within its fold and love the Church that has 
the world for its parish. Its mighty influence, 
its helpful power, perhaps, was never needed 
more than now. This same powerful lever is 
still needed to lift up the hundreds of thousands 
of others who have not as yet been reached. 

There are large territories where the Church 



152 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

has only been heard of — territories in which it is 
greatly needed. The Church is not losing among 
our people, but gaining, and well might it do so, 
for it is showing by its work that it believes in 
the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the 
brotherhood of man, for within its fold there is 
"neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncir- 
cumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; 
but Christ is all, and in all." 

IV 

BY THE REV. N. R. CLAY, A.M., D.D. 

The mission of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is to save the peoples of every kind, 
everywhere, into the kingdom of God, through 
the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. 
Indeed, the Church has a cosmopolitan mission, 
to the extent that the Church is world-wide in its 
scope, taking this great salvation to all men, 
seeking to lead them into the knowledge of the 
fullness of God in Jesus Christ. 

While the Church is engaged in this work 
among all peoples, yet there is no field that is 
more promising in permanent results than the 
work among the colored people of this Southland. 
Here they can be counted in large numbers sitting 
in the shadows of intellectual darkness and in the 
regions of spiritual death. There are not a few 



HIS PRESENT NEED 153 

places in the bounds of each of our colored Con- 
ferences where the people are in ignorance and 
shame. 

Wherever the minister of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church goes light springs up. If the Church 
is thinking of reducing the appropriation for this 
work, if she will but listen, she will hear multi- 
plied thousands of voices saying, "Not yet! not 
yet!" These needed servants of God and the 
Church are going in among these unfortunate 
people carrying them the light and the bread of 
life, and they only ask the Church to hold up 
their hands by her financial help till this spiritual 
darkness is dispelled. I think the spirit of the 
lowly Nazarene is not only good when you are 
needed, but when you are needed most, and this 
is a very needy field. 

There are very many places in the Yazoo Delta 
of the Mississippi and the Upper Mississippi Con- 
ferences where vice and spiritual darkness are 
very dense. Every dollar spent in this field is 
counting and will return much fruitage in the 
near future. 

The question may be asked, What are the sister 
Churches doing in this field? They are doing 
what they can to spread Christianity just as they 
are doing in other fields of the world. Still, 
there are very many reasons why the Methodist 
Episcopal Church should stand by this colored 



154 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

work. Her ministry is peculiarly fitted by train- 
ing to do it. Because of this, thirty per cent of the 
mission appointments have become self-support- 
ing during the last decade, and fully forty per cent 
are new fields entered in the last half dozen 
years. The ministers filling the appointments de- 
pend very largely upon the money paid by the 
Board of Home Missions for their support and 
that of their families. 

Yet these ministers are laying foundations 
upon which others shall build up great congrega- 
tions that shall turn the money spent to-day 
back into the coffers of the Church to-morrow. 
It is hard work, very often unappreciated; but 
the joy of their souls is not because men who 
come after them shall laud their heroism, but be- 
cause they laid deep the foundation for a mighty 
Church, thus accomplishing something for God 
and their fellows and this great country of ours. 

Why should the Methodist Church stay in the 
field? Because of her spirit and peculiar policy 
to uplift. The condition of the colored people 
in the South needs Christian sympathy and help. 
This should warrant the output of money by the 
Church. The place of our ministry in this field 
is hard, because the majority of the colored peo- 
ple live on larger farms where vice and sin are. 
Many of them refuse to go to the church, much 
less support it. The foreign missionary is no 



HIS PRESENT NEED 155 

more needed than the home missionary is needed 
to carry the light to the benighted creatures in 
these dark places in the South. 

Some may say that the Church has been put- 
ting money and men in the field for many years. 
So she has done for Africa, China, India, and 
the isles of the sea. The time of results has 
come, and the results are very evident. When 
you consider the young men and women of abil- 
ity and leadership and Christian influence that 
the Church has made and is making, besides the 
churches built, congregations collected, and in 
many places returning the full missionary appor- 
tionment back to the Church ; when you consider 
the depth from which they had to be brought, 
the Church may well say, What marvelous 
things God has wrought for this people through 
his Church ! 

Still some may say, Cannot this work be done 
other than by the Church? We say no, because 
the Methodist Church is God's avenue through 
which he is blessing his poor, ignorant people. 
It is the Church in which the people believe, and 
is largely looked upon by the colored people of 
the South as their chief friend. Through the 
Board of Home Missions and Church Extension 
the Church is not only to build the houses of wor- 
ship for the people, but to see to it that every 
church has a preacher. While the South is tinder* 



156 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

going great reforms, and entering upon a period 
of material prosperity, the Church cannot afford 
to retreat ; while the gray dawn of the day, of per- 
manent work among seven or eight millions of 
colored people is upon the horizon of the Church, 
she must and, I am sure, will go forward into 
every nook and corner of this Southland, carry- 
ing conversion and permanent joy to my people. 

V 

BY THE REV. J. L. WILSON, D.D. 

Among men of all races the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church has the right of way, and the field 
for the Methodist Episcopal Church among 
the colored people in the South is an inviting one 
and ripe unto harvest. No Church in America, 
because of its peculiar fitness in polity and doc- 
trine, is more helpful to the colored people than 
the Methodist Church. Every right-thinking 
colored man has a hearty welcome for this 
Church, which has done and is doing so much to 
make him both a Christian and a good citizen. 

Moral worth, the basis of good citizenship, is 
a fundamental teaching of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and intelligent colored people of 
all denominations are frank to admit that this 
Church has always been impartial in its dissemina- 
tion of right principles. The masses of colored 



HIS PRESENT NEED 157 

people, among whom helpful influences are so 
much needed, are in the South. A Macedonian 
cry to help them has come to Methodism. It has 
been responded to by educational and missionary 
workers, whose zeal, courage, and faith supply a 
long-felt want. A better thing was never done 
by the Church than the sending out of field sec- 
retaries. They go into the very heart of the 
"black belt," where the homes of the needy are, 
and accomplish what can be done by no one at 
long distance. Among the significant signs of 
the times are the moral changes among the Negro 
race wrought by this Church. 

This is the spirit of the Son of God w r orking 
in and through this helpless humanity. Man 
naturally loves his friend. From the first the 
colored man has never had and never will have 
a better friend than the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, a Church which preaches the doctrine of 
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
man. 



INFORMATION FROM THE DISTRICT 
SUPERINTENDENTS 

BY THE EDITOR 

We made an effort through the district super- 
intendents of the colored Conferences to find out, 
first, the real condition of the colored people so 



158 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

far as they had been able to discern ; second, the 
progress the Methodist Episcopal Church had 
made among them during the last quadrennium; 
and, third, the outlook for greater achievements. 
The contact that these men have had with repre- 
sentatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
helped them to see what the race really needs. 
They are not tempted to overdraw the picture 
representing our progress, nor undervalue our ac- 
complishments. They all testify that, everything 
considered, there is no greater missionary field 
in the United States than the ten millions of 
Negroes. Their environment, advantages, and 
privileges are such that they need help, encour- 
agement, and wider opportunity. The Methodist 
Episcopal Church was among the first of re- 
ligious forces to discover that it would be money 
well spent to make an effort to save the Negro in 
America. The Church was aware of his sunken 
condition, and knew that to reach him it would 
require much sacrifice and money. As great as 
the task was, she was willing to undertake it. 
The ninety-nine district superintendents travel- 
ing within the bounds of the colored Con- 
ferences, having investigated the condition of our 
people north and south, east and west, are of one 
accord in the conclusion that the race is in great 
need of the uplifting influence of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 



HIS PRESENT NEED 159 

We are able to give some encouraging infor- 
mation of what was accomplished during the last 
quadrennium among the colored membership 
from the reports received from the district super- 
intendents. We have 1,068 self-supporting 
charges; 502 missionary charges; 141 charges 
which with a little sacrifice on the part of the 
pastor and people could get along without mis- 
sionary money; 192 charges have become self- 
supporting during the past four years; 189 new 
missions have been established; and 268 new 
churches have been erected. 

The impression of the district superintendents 
within the bounds of the colored Conferences is 
that our churches are fairly well located, the 
work is advancing, the efficiency of the ministry 
is improving, the laymen are contributing more 
liberally toward the support of all the interests 
of the Church ; and that we are holding our own 
among other denominations. 

We need men and money to enter the fields 
where the colored people are calling for the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. Never were the oppor- 
tunities so favorable as now to reach the colored 
people in the United States. The Negro needs 
set before him the high standard of living such 
as the Methodist Episcopal Church represents. 
Our district superintendents are pleading with the 
Church to make a more vigorous campaign to 



160 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

reach the millions of colored people in this coun- 
try who are out of the kingdom of Christ. The 
result of such effort will be better citizens and a 
more reliable and progressive people. 

Five hundred and seventy-one places are re- 
ported by the district superintendents where our 
Church could do well. What a field that remains 
to be gathered ! Let us pray the Lord to touch 
the hearts of those who are able to give that they 
may respond to the Macedonian cry. 



THE NEGRO'S NEED OF INCREASED 
HELP FROM THE CHURCH AND 
WHY? 

BY THE EDITOR 

The colored members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church are among the most exemplary 
Christians, most loyal citizens, and strongest lead- 
ers of our race. From the seed sown by the 
Missionary Society or the Church Extension 
Board many self-supporting churches have been 
developed. Our growth in membership has been 
gradual, not spasmodic. We give more for 
benevolences than the one million colored Bap- 
tists. Our Church property is on an average 



HIS PRESENT NEED 161 

much less in debt than that of the larger denom- 
inations. Everything considered, we are making 
a splendid record toward self-support. 

We ask those who think we ought to do more 
to be patient with us. We have had a long way 
to come, and our hindrances within and without 
have been many. We are determined to bear 
such fruit as will justify the sacrifices made and 
the money expended. 

The Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregational 
Churches are giving annually large sums to help 
this struggling people. There are seven millions 
of this race who need the uplifting hand of our 
strong and more fortunate brothers. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has a record 
of carrying out the motto of her founder — "The 
world is my parish." Her power and resources 
will inspire her to do more for the colored people 
in the future than in the past. 

The Roman Catholic Church has never made 
in its history such missionary effort to get the 
colored people within its fold as it is making to- 
day. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church has decided 
to do more to reach the colored people than ever 
before. They are sending missionaries, white 
and colored, into all the States, supporting them 
and contributing a considerable sum of money to 
help build chapels and schools for them. 



162 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

The Lutheran Church also has become very 
aggressive in this direction. 

Now, where there is a large population of col- 
ored people, the Methodist Episcopal Church is 
needed for several reasons in spite of the fact 
that there may be other Methodist Churches 
there. Saving a human soul is a great work, but 
saving a race is a greater work. One thing 
should be kept in mind by those who desire to 
understand the general needs of the colored peo- 
ple, and the future success of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church among them. Their conditions 
make them as yet a child race. If there is any- 
thing above all others that the colored people need 
it is contact with the Christian white people of 
this land. A race of only forty-odd years of 
opportunity needs to be in touch in some way 
with a race of a thousand years of opportunity, 
especially when these races are living in the same 
land and under the same flag. The colored peo- 
ple must be reached and saved for the good of 
the country. While vigorous efforts are being 
made to save the foreigner coming under our 
flag, it should be remembered that there are ten 
millions right here who have sprung from a peo- 
ple who were brought to this land, and who for 
two and a half centuries were kept in slavery. 
They have no flag but the stars and stripes, no 
land but America; they were among those who 



HIS PRESENT NEED 163 

fought for the Republic; they have rendered 
heroic service upon several occasions; they have 
less encouragement to be Christians than any peo- 
ple who believe in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of 
the world. Their color, in many instances, shuts 
them out where others who are not superior to 
them in either character or intelligence are recog- 
nized and welcomed. The Church should reach 
out her hand through the Board of Home Mis- 
sions and Church Extension to these millions of 
souls as never before, until there shall be a turning 
away from sin unto God, to the life of New Tes- 
tament Christianity. 



OUR YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR 
RELIGIOUS TRAINING 

BY THE REV. C. C. JACOBS, D.D. 

The religious workers of all Christian organi- 
zations are realizing now as never before that 
their greatest opportunity for effective evangel- 
istic results is to be obtained in laboring among 
the young. The child of to-day is the man of to- 
morrow ; it has been wisely said that the child of 
this generation is the parent of the next. The 
strength of character and usefulness of the future 
generation will depend upon the kind of training 



164 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

given to the children of to-day. The Athenians, 
having the knowledge of the value of early train- 
ing, rigidly applied the method among their youth 
and have given to the world a beautiful example 
of the possibility of the cultivation of a high 
aesthetic taste, furnishing to the world its great- 
est masters in poetry, art, philosophy, and ora- 
tory. 

The period of childhood is the formative stage 
of life, when impressions made are as ineradica- 
ble as eternity itself. It is the fact-hungry pe- 
riod; they are desirous of getting information. 
It is then that they ask more questions for the 
sole purpose of getting knowledge than at any 
other period of their existence. It is the mem- 
ory-storing period; they keep more vividly 
stored in their memory the things that they learn 
in childhood than at any other period of contact 
in life. It is the credulous period, when truth is 
accepted without question, and fixes itself for 
time and eternity upon the heart and mind in the 
most fertile period of one's existence. How im- 
portant, then, it is that the youth of our race 
should have right principles of character placed 
before them in the plastic, formative period of 
their existence. 

We should welcome any agency that looks to 
the cultivation of that period of the child life 
that makes for permanency in high Christian 



HIS PRESENT NEED 165 

character. The Sunday school, to my mind, is 
the most potent agency to-day engaged in the 
work of molding and fastening the young heart 
and mind along the lines most needed for their 
future good. The purpose of the Sunday school 
is to lay the foundation of Christian character by 
the inculcation of faith and saving grace in the 
hearts of those who receive the truth, causing 
them to accept the Scriptures as the rule and 
guide of life. In order that this training depart- 
ment of the Church may measure up to the re- 
quirements of the great Head of the Church, the 
truth must be made plain to those who are in- 
structed in it. The teacher must make thorough 
preparation. He must know the sacred truth 
and be filled with the Holy Spirit, having a heart 
throbbing with faith and devotion, and a life cor- 
responding to the truth he is teaching. He must 
love the Church of God, and possess a holy am- 
bition to bring lambs into its fold. The true 
teacher prepares each lesson with the hope of 
bringing his pupils into the kingdom of God. 

One of the most effective ways to bring about 
the greatest possible success for the kingdom 
through the Sunday school is for the homes of 
the children to become Bible-studying and God- 
loving. Parents should institute Bible study in 
the home for the sake of themselves and the good 
example that it will be to their children, and the 



1 66 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

reverence that it will cultivate for teachings of 
the Holy Book. 

The greatest field for evangelistic endeavor is 
in the realm of childhood. There is no race that 
needs the training that the Bible offers more than 
our struggling people; through its promises we 
can hope for the final settlement of all the diffi- 
culties that we now or may hereafter encounter. 
We cannot rightly teach and inspire others to 
greater reverence and holier living unless we our- 
selves study diligently the truths of the Sacred 
Book and practice them in our own lives, that we 
may lead others through a living experience into 
the things that we ourselves have tested and 
proved worthy of emulation. 

The hope of our race, as that of all other races, 
depends upon the kind of training that is given 
to our youth. May we catch more of the spirit 
of our Divine Master, who was ever ready with 
heart and hand to lead them into the fold ! 



WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS? 

BY MRS. MATTIE CARR CHAVIS, A.M. 

The few words I shall say in this discussion 
will be directed to the parents in the form of a 
question. I give it to you in this manner because 
for the last six years it has been presenting itself 



HIS PRESENT NEED 167 

to me as a subject upon which to speak whenever 
I have entered a public gathering, whether that 
gathering be in church, school, or holiday con- 
course. 

The last two years of my husband's presidency 
at Bennett College it was my pleasure to go over 
the North Carolina Conference with him, visiting 
District Conferences, conventions, and various 
meetings. As I was interested in the erection of 
a dining hall for the school, I was always asked 
to address every audience. Although the cause 
uppermost in my mind at the time was the "new 
dining hall," I was impelled by force of a subject 
my audience presented me to ask them and at the 
same time answer for them this question : "Where 
are your boys?" 

I have seen tender-hearted mothers and not 
altogether hard-hearted fathers melt in tears as 
I told them in simple heart-to-heart talk that the 
boys are not wholly to blame; that girls and boys 
given equal chances, the same training, and the 
same tender care, are more than likely to produce 
women and men of equal poise of character. 

The truth of the whole matter is that the boys 
are treated as a separate class of humanity, ame- 
nable to no law and responsible to no one. The 
wonder should be, not that we have so many men 
in the chain-gangs and penitentiaries, but rather, 
how do so many boys, left to their own rearing, 



168 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

make useful men and escape these places? It is 
criminal to turn little boys loose at the age of 
ten or twelve to go out from under the protecting 
care of their parents — mark you, I say protecting 
care — to earn their livelihood and to be their own 
protectors. These are the years in which both 
boys and girls need careful guidance, and the 
period when they need it most — from fourteen to 
eighteen. They do and dare anything, not hav- 
ing had the proper restraint in earlier years. 
Hence the reason for such a large number of un- 
fortunate boys and young men among us. 

The desire for money, not so much honest toil, 
has led many to make their young children wage- 
earners. This has led to the ignoring of a vital 
principle in our home life, that of child-training. 
This is a subject for both teacher and preacher, 
and they should not fail to bring it home to the 
hearts of the parents of our race. Our parents 
with one accord have risen to the height of the 
tidal wave of training their girls for mothers; 
but in their zeal they have forgotten, seemingly, 
that these mothers will need husbands at least 
their equals in training. Tennyson very truth- 
fully puts it thus : 

"As the husband, so the wife is; thou art mated with a 

clown, 
And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag 
thee down." 



HIS PRESENT NEED 169 

This craze of educating the girls must be changed 
into the more sane principle of educating our 
children; and the sooner we awake to the enor- 
mity of our mistake the better it will be for the 
race. The mothers and fathers of the race are 
not holding on to their boys; the real truth is, 
they are not keeping them boys long enough. Re- 
member this, when a boy is sent out from home 
to shift for himself and earn his own money, 
whether he is twelve or twenty-one, he at once 
becomes his own man. 

I would remind the fathers that in their earnest 
desire to provide well for the support of their 
families they have left the rearing and caring for 
the children too much to the mothers. As the 
mother is the girl's ideal, so is the father the boy's 
ideal. The girl never aspires to be like her father, 
though she may desire to cultivate certain graces 
of that parent. The boy never wishes to be a 
girl; he would be a boy — intensely so — until he 
becomes a man like his father. But sad is it for 
that boy who has not a good father for an ideal ! 
He will take some man for his ideal, and he may 
not be a good one. Now, this fact should make 
the father share in the rearing of his children, 
especially his boys, more largely than it is the 
custom of our fathers to do, even among our 
best families. 

Boys should be taught to work, but it should 



170 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

be done under the supervision of the father or 
some other elderly man interested in the boy's 
rearing. Boys should be kept employed at some 
productive industry. A boy works best when he 
knows he is making, or rather earning, some- 
thing; and his mind expands more rapidly in an 
atmosphere of growing things. His world is a 
large world, and in proportion as he makes some- 
thing or causes something to grow he develops 
into a broad-hearted and large-souled being. 

I know fathers who own farms, and good ones, 
who will hire out their young boys for a small 
amount of money, or will allow them to go off 
to large cities to work. These same fathers could 
take their own boys and their own farms, and 
produce a great deal more in dollars and cents, 
and certainly more in character. I have in mind 
a father who works his own farm with his own 
boys, and pays them for their labor. In this way 
he makes their home life happy, and they are will- 
ing to remain at home until after they are grown. 
And this man has not long owned his own farm 
either, though this has been his custom for years. 

I have gone into communities where at least 
half the church audience were young girls in the 
adolescent period. They were beautiful, intelli- 
gent, happy girls. The other half was made up 
of mothers, fathers (a very few), grandparents, 
and little children. I hesitate when I write 



HIS PRESENT NEED 171 

fathers, for a large number of the fathers are 
not churchgoers, which fact may partly account 
for the absence of the boys. But when one begins 
to inquire for the boys privately, they can too 
often be found in low dives, shooting dice or 
otherwise gambling; or hanging around railroad 
stations, taking in the small talk of cheap-rate 
sports; or they may be in the police stations, or 
perhaps in the chain-gang ; and, sadder still, they 
may be spending the Sabbath on the country 
roads. It is horrible to contemplate, but the fact 
remains that this is the direct route to the peni- 
tentiary, and sometimes mere boys get there. I 
repeat, the boys are not wholly to blame. 

O, you say, the church audience is not a safe 
or fair basis from which to argue. All right, 
since it is the advancement and uplift of the race 
that is at the bottom of this subject, suppose we 
take our public schools and colleges to see how 
the ratio obtains in them. Just to show you that 
it is not that we have more girls than we do boys, 
I ask you to visit the primary department of any 
school, and you will note that the number of girls 
and boys from five to seven is about equal. After 
the first grade, however, among our people, the 
number of boys gradually grows less, and by the 
time the eighth grade is reached the boys have 
literally run out. It is seldom, indeed, that more 
than two or three of the boys who begin in the 



172 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

first grade continue in school through the sev- 
enth and eighth. This refers particularly to 
small towns and villages, but even in cities the 
ratio is not more than one to five in favor of the 
girls. Again I ask the parents, "Where are your 
boys?'' In our secondary schools the showing 
is much worse for the boys. Unless it is par- 
ticularly a boys' school, the girls very far out- 
number the boys. In the case of a school which 
carries a college course, the same ratio does not 
obtain in favor of the girls, due to the fact that 
most girls complete their education in the second- 
ary schools. But it is not only in the matter of 
school training that our boys are neglected, but 
also in the home training, and in the moral train- 
ing that comes through the Church and society. 

I think one of the saddest sights I have ever 
seen was a crowd of boys going to dinner at a 
county farm. I cannot say but that they were 
pretty evenly divided as to white and black, but 
many of them did not seem to be ten years of 
age. Think of it! The county farm is not a 
reformatory — if it were, it would be a good 
place for some boys; but, on the contrary, it is 
the place for old and hardened criminals. 

If such a condition obtained in most towns and 
cities as does in my own town, as regards young 
criminals, the time would not be far distant when 
a better day would dawn for the Negro boy — if 




Group 6 

Rev. W. H. Brooks, D.D. Rev. Ernest Lyon, D.D. 

Rev. E. W. S. Hammond, D.D. Rev. E. A. White, D.D. 



HIS PRESENT NEED 173 

the parents would only do their duty. For your 
information I will state this condition. We have 
a municipal court, and the present judge of this 
court has informed the preachers, both white and 
black, that if a young boy is brought into his 
court who is not already a hardened criminal he 
will turn him over to the family and to the 
preacher of his family, providing the preacher 
will promise to advise and counsel the boy and 
the family will promise to look after him more 
carefully. In addition to the family and the 
preacher vouching for the boy, the judge requires 
the boy to report to him regularly as to how he 
is getting on. With more such judges, employ- 
ing the same or similar method, a brighter day 
awaits the Negro boy, if only the parents will do 
their duty. 

If only the parents would get this question on 
their hearts, and study the causes that make so 
much of our young life a failure and a disgrace, 
it would serve to arouse them to more determined 
efforts in the rearing of their children. The 
secret of it all lies in not having one code of rear- 
ing for girls and boys. As in babyhood the sex 
of the child is not indicated by its dress or mode 
of tending, so in childhood the method of training 
should be the same for both girl and boy; and the 
fond parent would see much better results if the 
boy is kept a boy as long as the girl is kept a girl. 



174 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

It is only the fostering care of the parents 
throughout the boy's childhood that will enable 
them to answer unblushingly this question, 
"Where are your boys ?" 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS IN THE HOME 
AND THE REARING OF CHILDREN 

BY MRS. AMANDA MASHAN 

Above all things, it is the duty of parents to 
make the home a happy and attractive place — 
not for strangers, but for their children. Children 
of happy and attractive homes and kind, loving 
parents seldom go astray. 

Do not get the idea that we mean the home in 
which there is no obedience or restraint. There 
can be no peace or comfort in the home where 
children do not obey. Children themselves will 
cease to be happy or respect parents who cannot 
or will not make them obey. 

In order to have prompt obedience, the parents 
must begin when the child is young. Be patient 
and do not give too many commands, or com- 
mands that you are not able to have obeyed. 
Parents who are quiet and firm and who have 
control of their tempers and tongues are the ones 
whom children delight to obey. 



HIS PRESENT NEED 175 

Be kind and sympathetic with your children in 
their play. Make playthings for them and play 
with them. Time spent in play with children is 
not lost ; children must play. 

Take time to listen to the children's account of 
a day's experience in school or at work. En- 
courage them to confess if they have failed in 
their studies or done wrong in any way. Be kind 
and thoughtful in your reproof; listen to all the 
details in the story and patiently show where 
the sin comes in. Be sure to praise the children 
when they have done well. Do not scold; if the 
children have done wrong, take them alone, one 
by one, to reprove and punish. 

To save your children from bad company, have 
them entertain their friends at home. Some 
children are afraid to have their friends visit 
them, because of angry words and quarreling be- 
tween their parents. 

Let love and peace brighten every room in the 
home, or you will drive your children to ruin. 
Give birthday gifts, be they ever so cheap. Occa- 
sionally, let the children have a little entertain- 
ment and invite a few select friends. Surprise 
them by some little extra that you have provided 
for them. It does us all good to know that 
some one thought and planned for our comfort 
when we were absent. Teach the children to get 
little gifts for each other and for their parents. 



176 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

No home is happy where each cares only for num- 
ber one. 

Let the children be present and enjoy the con- 
versation when you have company. Do not in- 
vite people to your house who are not pleased 
with your children, and who would engage in 
conversations that would not be proper for your 
children to hear. Let the children help entertain 
the company, and, in short, let each child feel 
that it is a part of the family and will be greatly 
missed if absent. Have a table large enough 
for all the children to sit together at meal times, 
and let each child have its own place at the family 
table. This is a good place to teach all not to be 
selfish and the pleasure of seeing others enjoy 
what they have not. 

Have a fireside school in the home, which means 
daily reading. If you cannot read, take time to 
listen to the children read and express their opin- 
ions of what is read. Be sure and have only 
good books and no others in the home. 

Make the children's rooms as pleasant and at- 
tractive as possible, and be sure to have separate 
rooms for the girls and boys. It is much more 
profitable to spend your money for a writing 
desk, bookcase, or easy chair for your boy's or 
girl's room than for fine dresses with which to 
appear in public. The more you dress a child, 
the more it desires to get away from home in 



HIS PRESENT NEED 177 

order to display its fine dress, and in many in- 
stances fine dress has been the means of leading 
children astray. 

Above all things, accompany your children to 
the house of God, the church and Sunday school. 
In the language of one of old, "Train up a child 
in the way he should go ; and when he is old, he 
will not depart from it." 



BUSINESS METHODS IN CHURCH 
FINANCES 

BY THE EDITOR 

Not a few churches are at a disadvantage in 
striving to meet their expenses. This is probably 
due to the lack of business methods in their man- 
agement. 

The church must be well organized to meet 
successfully its financial obligations. It is notice- 
able that every well-organized society presses its 
claims with a persistence that cannot be resisted. 
Not so with the churches in relation to their 
finances. They receive paltry consideration, and 
are in many cases managed just as they were a 
quarter of a century ago. Such shiftlessness can 
only mean disaster, for the business affairs of the 
church must be conducted in a businesslike way, 
or else failure will certainly result, just as it does 



178 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

in the careless management of secular affairs. 
Every department of church work must suffer 
when the finances are given slipshod supervision. 

The tendency of the times is to place upon 
the pastor every burden of the church, thereby 
weighing him down and making it impossible for 
him to efficiently do the work to which he was 
particularly called, and to which he has conse- 
crated his life. For this the membership is in a 
great measure responsible. Too many are quick 
to accept official relations, but they seem unwilling 
to give the time, the thought, and the labor neces- 
sary to the affairs over which they have super- 
vision. The interests of the church are just as 
important as those pertaining to their own pri- 
vate business. Were they as indifferent to their 
own affairs as they are to those of the church 
their failures would be greatly augmented. 
There must be careful planning and persistent 
effort toward enlisting the cooperation of every 
member of the church in carrying forward her 
financial plans. This cannot be accomplished in 
a haphazard way ; but systematic effort, with the 
view of disseminating such knowledge and infor- 
mation as will interest and acquaint the member- 
ship of the church with her resources, her ex- 
penses, and her needs will gradually win the sup- 
port necessary to insure voluntary offerings. 

Let there be applied to the financial department 



HIS PRESENT NEED 179 

of the church the same thought, effort, and time 
as are given other departments and there will be 
fewer churches struggling with heavy debts to 
impede their progress. 



MINISTERIAL SUPPORT 

BY MRS. MARY F. DENT 

In all Methodist Episcopal churches there is, 
or should be, an organization known as the 
Ladies' Aid Society. The object of this organi- 
zation is to render aid in the support of the 
church, and to assist the stewards in looking out 
for the ministerial support of the church. As 
Christians our obligations are no less binding 
than they are to any other cause. Every indi- 
vidual member of the church should feel it his 
duty to help support the church. We make that 
solemn vow upon entering the church, and we can- 
not afford to break it. No institution can live 
without support. Every man labors with the ex- 
pectation of being rewarded. The farmer, the 
miller, the woodcutter, the stevedore, the teacher, 
the musician, the carpenter, the painter, all work 
with the expectation of a reward. What, then, 
about the man who preaches the gospel? Is 
there any more reason why the minister should 



180 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

go unpaid than any other honest laborer? Why- 
should he? I am sure his work is no less im- 
portant. Whatever the church member obligates 
himself to pay his minister, until the last cent of 
it is paid he is in debt to him ; and even when we 
pay our just debts we are not giving it to the 
minister. We are simply paying what we owe. 
We pay our grocery bill because we owe it. We 
are not donating anything to the grocer. There 
are some people who feel and even say the 
preacher has an easy job; that he gets his living 
without having to work for it. This may be 
true of a class of men who are simply called min- 
isters. But a true minister of the gospel, a man 
of God, has not such an easy job as some folks 
think. A man who is very anxious to make his 
work progressive has cares and responsibilities 
enough. 

When we pay our just claims let us not feel 
that we are paying a public beggar, but a wage- 
earner. If we want first-class ministers let us 
be prepared to do first-class work. There was a 
time when almost anything would answer for a 
sermon. It is not so now. To-day the world is 
calling for prepared ministers — those who not 
only read the Bible, but the local papers also; 
those who study the condition of the times so as 
to be able to keep before the minds of the people 
their situation. God forbid that the Methodist 



HIS PRESENT NEED 181 

Episcopal Church should ever content herself 
with an inferior ministry! The representatives 
of this grand old Church must be men not only 
able to read, but men of untarnished character, 
whose purpose is to lift up those who have fallen. 
We are judged not so much by what we say as by 
what we do. To those who represent the Ladies' 
Aid Society, the cause we represent is an honor- 
able one. It is true we are of a weaker sex, and 
not possessed of the peculiar strength that lies in 
man ; but we are women united together for one 
grand purpose. Let us be women indeed! 
Women stand for purity. Let us always be 
known by the sign of truth and virtue stamped 
upon our character. For, after all, the power 
lies in our hands. Our race is dependent upon 
us. When we go up it goes with us. When we 
fall we bring it down to our level. 



MINISTERIAL QUALIFICATION 

BY THE EDITOR 

The age in which we live requires a qualified 
ministry. The opportunities for preparation are 
so numerous that there is no reasonable excuse 
for young men seeking to enter the ministry with- 
out proper preparation. Our Church has a great 



182 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

many applicants for the ministry mainly in search 
of a "job." Their false conceptions lead them to 
seek a bypath into the ministry, which makes 
them unconscious of the responsibility and pur- 
pose of such a high calling. Such persons turn 
deaf ears to the call for preparation, and are glad 
to accept any kind of appointment so as to be 
able to obtain a ministerial enrollment. They 
make much noise but fail to elevate the people. 
There are a few godly men who have had little 
preparation who are exceptions to this class under 
consideration. 

How can this situation be remedied? Let us 
raise the standard of ministerial qualifications and 
insist that men who enter our ministry shall 
stand high in exemplary Christian life and in- 
tellectual ability. 

And while we are endeavoring to furnish the 
churches with a competent ministry let the lay- 
men generously support those sent to minister. 
In this way we can help to remove the barrier 
which causes many young men to enter other 
professions, who would be in the ministry to-day. 

The irregular and often scanty support dis- 
courages many young men who are inclined to 
make the Christian ministry their lifework. This 
is not a selfish viewpoint, but perfectly in har- 
mony with what the Master said, that "the 
laborer is worthy of his hire." In a word, we do 



HIS PRESENT NEED 183 

not hesitate to say that Methodism will lose its 
grip upon the masses unless it insists upon a 
qualified ministry, men who have religious ex- 
perience, who are truly called to be ambassadors 
of Christ, who have the spirit of Christ and are 
living examples of what they preach. 



HOW TO KNOW THE REAL CONDITION 
OF OUR PEOPLE IN THE SOUTH 

BY THE REV. J. WILL JACKSON., D.D. 

The desire of a certain class of politicians in 
the South, to convert Northern sentiment into 
sympathy with their schemes to reduce the Negro 
to a condition worse than the slavery from which 
he has recently emerged, is being encouraged by 
Northern courtesy. The most radical of this 
class are being invited to address Northern au- 
diences. The topics assigned or selected by these 
exponents of the doctrine of dehumanization are 
invariably such as include the Negro as the center 
of interest, whom they hideously disfigure with 
calumny and misrepresentation. But when the 
citizens of Springfield, Illinois, can invite and 
welcome to their hospitality Ex-Governor Varda- 
man, of Mississippi, tender him a special recep- 
tion, and while he lectures to them calmly receive 



1 84 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

his avowal of the authorship of a published ar- 
ticle which stigmatized Abraham Lincoln as a 
"friend of hell/' as they have done, one of three 
things becomes apparent — the prevalence of an 
indiscreet toleration of free speech in the North, 
the Southernizing of Northern sentiment, or the 
profound slumber of that patriotic spirit which 
not long ago was alert to defend the honor of our 
martyred President and do reverence to his im- 
mortal name. 

It is true that free speech is the birthright of 
every American, but the Federal Constitution 
does not invest it with autocratic liberty — it can 
be abused. 

Will the work of the Church among our people 
in the South be affected by this Northern invasion 
of Southern sentiment — the sentiment of Varda- 
man and his school of thinkers? Will the people 
of the North accept these politicians as conclusive 
authority on "the real condition of our people in 
the South" ? These are questions of our medita- 
tions. A negative response to each of them is 
befitting. We have nothing to fear from the 
revelation of facts. Falsehood cannot forever 
survive. 

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again: 
Th* eternal years of God are hers; 
While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies among his worshipers." 



HIS PRESENT NEED 185 

Mere unsupported and unsupportable assertions 
vanish in the piercing light of truth. Falsehood 
is a fabrication of misrepresentations, and sus- 
tains nothing. 

Our people in the South have ever had a friend 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church. It has never 
faltered in its work of uplifting the black man. 
It has never receded from the course it has once 
adopted. An unerring genius seems to have pre- 
sided over the deliberations of its councils and 
dictated the wisdom of its procedure. Within 
the past thirty-five years the civil and political 
status of the Negro has been restricted by dis- 
criminative legislation in most of the Southern 
States, but his status and recognition in the great 
Church have not been affected thereby. 

How can the Church know the real condition 
of our people in the South? This knowledge is 
necessary to its future operation. In answer to 
this question, the following propositions are of- 
fered: A commission of inquiry appointed by 
the General Conference, to travel through the 
Southern States and make careful investigation 
into the moral, social, financial, and intellectual 
condition of our people, and report the results 
of its labor through the official organs of the 
Church. Or, authorize the Freedmen's Aid So- 
ciety to prepare a circular letter, with questions 
covering the items required, to be sent to all pas- 



1 86 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

tors, school-teachers, or other individuals or or- 
ganizations in the South, and, when filled out, 
returned; results to be reported through the 
Church papers. 

Let the conduct of the Negro disprove the accu- 
sations of his enemies. Let him faithfully and 
uprightly meet every obligation, be honorable in 
all things, and he will help the grand old Church 
to carry forward its great work in the South. 



U6I 62 NVf 




Group 4 

Rev. H. A. Monroe, D.D. Rev. C. A. Tindley, D.D. 

Rev. G. W. Arnold, A.M., D.D. Rev. B. Mack Hubbard, D.D. 



PART III 

THE OUTLOOK FOR FURTHER 
ENDEAVOR 



THE GREAT HARVEST TO BE 
GATHERED 

BY THE EDITOR 

The entire colored race owes gratitude to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for what it has done 
in many ways toward the elevation of our people. 
It began the permanent work, educational and 
otherwise, among this people when their condi- 
tion was poor and their friends few. For more 
than forty years some of the noblest men and 
women of the white race have contributed service 
toward the uplift of this people. Their services 
will be appreciated for years to come, and their 
sacrifices will make their memory precious among 
the colored people. 

There are ten millions of this race in the 
United States, and about seven millions of them 
are out of Christ; it seems as if the work of 
reaching the people has just begun. They are 
in America to stay, and they must be saved. 
Wherever attention has been given them in point 
of elevation, we have seen results which in many 
respects are very gratifying; especially when we 
think of these people as only having entered 
189 



190 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

upon life, in any measure. It brings before the 
Christian people of America an opportunity to 
do missionary work in a field that is white for 
harvest. 

The saving of this race, with its marvelous in- 
crease in population, will help solve many of the 
problems which are before us to-day, and will help 
prepare the way for the time when this people 
shall be able to contribute some help toward the 
salvation of far-off Africa, with its millions of 
human souls. If there ever was a time when a 
vigorous effort should be made to gather people 
into the kingdom it is now. We know that much 
money has been expended already to bring about 
the present results among the colored race of 
America. But when you consider how long the 
Church has been knocking at the doors of other 
lands that the gospel of Jesus Christ may be 
preached unto the people, and the small results 
which have come from large expenditure of 
money and the sacrifice of many noble Christian 
men and women, we are of the opinion that, 
everything considered, there have never been 
larger results from money expended than what 
are manifest among the colored race. 

There is great need of making a campaign 
such as has never been made in the history of 
our Church toward the gathering in of the mil- 
lions of souls who are here and shall remain, in 



THE OUTLOOK 191 

order that they grow up into Christian manhood. 
They should be helped to look to higher things, 
and to realize that the highest ideal to which one 
should aspire is the Christian example of going 
about doing good. The time has come when our 
Church should pray especially that God will pros- 
per as never before the people for whose spiritual 
welfare many sacrifices have been made and 
money contributed that people might be led into 
the kingdom. 

The colored people are subject to many tempta- 
tions from without, and they have battles to 
fight within ; they cannot overcome these external 
and internal forces which have done so much to 
keep them away from God unless the stronger 
race help them to get on their feet and thus be- 
come contributors toward making the world bet- 
ter. The Master said when he was here, "The 
harvest is great." Who can travel through the 
Southland without observing that the colored 
people are as thick as grasshoppers and most of 
them ignorant and superstitious, so that unless 
help is given them they cannot rise from their 
condition ? The Negro is naturally sympathetic ; 
he can be won to appreciate what is done for him, 
and is ready to make any sacrifice that he may 
indicate his appreciation of what has been done 
for him. This Africa in America must be 
reached. No Church is better adapted to do this 



192 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

than the Methodist Episcopal Church. Since 
they belong to the human family, and America 
cannot rise unless she lifts them up also, this is 
the great reason why the Church should not only 
render help, but increase its appropriation that 
the millions of people who are out of touch with 
its religious influence may hear voices telling 
them of the Saviour, leading them away from 
destroying conditions, up into an atmosphere 
where they shall prove worthy of recognition 
among the Christian brotherhood of mankind. 



THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

BY THE REV. J. MERCER JOHNSON, D.D. 

Even in the early days of Methodism in 
America the Negro had a keen interest in the 
work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
through all these years this interest has never 
lagged, but increased. Nor has the interest of 
the Church lessened. It increases with the years, 
and each year witnesses new plans laid and oppor- 
tunities opened to this people. 

In early days, when others saw in the Negro 
only a living machine, the Church saw deep down 



THE OUTLOOK 193 

in his better nature the image of a real man, and 
set herself at the task of having him discover 
himself and bring this manhood to light, that it 
might bless mankind and honor God. Accord- 
ingly, she established schools, colleges, and uni- 
versities for his intellectual training, theological 
seminaries for his spiritual vision, and, fully- 
realizing that unless the homes of the people come 
under the regenerating influence and uplifting 
power of the disciplined mind, the kind heart, and 
educated hand of women, all effort would be of 
little avail, model homes were established for the 
training of our women in noble principles, thus 
giving them a foundation upon which to begin. 

There is nothing so pleasing as the future out- 
look of the Methodist Church among the Negroes. 
The Negro believes substantially in the old 
Church, and the Church has splendid reasons not 
to mistrust the Negro, who has been true and 
loyal to her very principles, and in the language 
of one of God's minor prophets, "Can two walk 
together except they be agreed ?" 

The question of whether the Negro can be ed- 
ucated or should be educated, for his own good or 
the good of others, has been so convincingly de- 
cided in the affirmative, first by the Methodist 
Episcopal Church and finally by all broad and 
true thinkers, that this phase of the Negro prob- 
lem has ceased to be discussed. The question 



194 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

now is, how far will he go? The Church an- 
swers, As far as any man with equal advantages. 

He knows that the Church is his true and tried 
friend, and his faith in her is boundless. The 
crisis is over, the breakers have been skillfully 
passed. We are now out in the clear calm sea 
of faith, bound for higher heights and greater 
victories. As fifty years will test the real char- 
acter of most institutions and of men, this has 
been tried and proved ; the black man's place in 
the Church is as fixed as the stars. He cries now 
as did David, "My heart is fixed, O God, my 
heart is fixed." 

Any position to which he may aspire is before 
him. He is not treated as a black man or a 
black member, but as a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, a recipient of all her blessings 
and gifts. The question of the Negro bishop in 
the Church makes little impression upon the peo- 
ple, for they believe that in due time the Negro 
bishop will come. The greatest problems of both 
Church and State are studied and fought out 
by all the members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, white, black, yellow, brown, yea, by all 
the races of the world, and this to the black man 
is a wonderful opportunity. His advantages 
are greater by far because of his association with 
the best minds of all the races of the earth. What- 
ever the future of this grand old Church is, the 




Group 7 

R. B. McRary, A.M. Hon. George L. Knox 

Solomon Houston John Henry Smith 



THE OUTLOOK 195 

black man stands ready to do his part. For more 
than one hundred years he has been associated 
in its councils and mission work, both home and 
foreign. He considers, and rightly, that this 
great Church is a direct blessing to all mankind. 

The outlook is pleasing and encouraging, the 
beckoning hand is seen, the calm voice with no 
uncertain sound is heard, with a representative 
in every department of the Church, and with op- 
portunities daily multiplying, together with his 
increasing interest in every phase of her work. 
He is in the Methodist Church to stay. Her 
history cannot be written without him, nor her 
future forecast with him left out. 

The outlook for this great Church was never 
brighter than it is to-day. There is not a body 
of members in whose heart the Church is more 
warmly received and more devoutly loved than 
she is in the hearts of her black members. This 
is seen in the spirit shown by the number of ed- 
ucated and consecrated young men and women 
who have already offered themselves to go to 
Africa to work and die for the cause of Him 
who loved us with an everlasting love. 



196 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

THE OUTLOOK OF THE METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH AMONG THE 
COLORED PEOPLE 



BY THE REV. J. E. BRYANT., D.D. 

From the time that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church came in contact with the Negro it has been 
a true friend and a rightful helper to him in 
every respect. In the dark days of slavery, when 
the conflicts were fierce and hard, the old Church 
was the Negro's nearest and dearest friend among 
earth's agencies. After the close of the war 
the great Church saw and realized the necessities 
confronting the colored people of the South. 
Not only did the Church seek to give them re- 
ligious training, which was essentially necessary, 
but it saw and realized also the great need of 
training and educating them intellectually; there- 
fore, opening its treasure, it lavished upon them 
means for their intellectual and religious devel- 
opment. At a great sacrifice white teachers and 
preachers were immediately sent to us, and 
churches, schools, and colleges were built in order 
that we, having been emancipated from physical 
bondage, might be able to throw off the thraldom 
of ignorance and superstition also. Because of 



THE OUTLOOK 197 

these providential agencies the race has wonder- 
fully developed on all lines, and even though 
there is much to be accomplished, all thoughtful 
and well-balanced persons, of whatever race or 
creed, may rightly say that the Church has been 
a benefactor to the Negro race, and most espe- 
cially to that part of the race which has been 
honored with the remarkable distinction of hold- 
ing membership in this great cosmopolitan 
brotherhood. 

We are indeed justly proud of such specimens 
of manhood, scholarship, and accomplishment as 
are represented in such men as our own Bishop 
Scott, Drs. I. L. Thomas, M. C B. Mason, J. W. 
E. Bowen, R. E. Jones, E. M. Jones, I. G. Penn, 
W. W. Lucas, C. C. Jacobs, G. W. Arnold, W. 
H. Logan, M. W. Dogan, R. S. Lovinggood, 
and scores of other men and women whom the 
great Church has given to the race. These men 
and women have been carefully led, guided, and 
trained in the Church with the utmost care. 
Many of them hold responsible positions of honor 
and trust, and are measuring up to every require- 
ment. Thus it is plainly seen that the labor, toil, 
care, and means which the Church has exercised 
toward its colored constituency have not been 
bestowed in vain. I firmly believe the Church 
is proud of every effort put forth in God's name 
to help us, and that it is still willing to lend us aid 



198 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

as well as other peoples, until a perfect society 
shall be established among all the nations of the 
earth. 

At times we become discouraged, when the 
clouds are dark and the tempests of prejudice 
grow strong and terrible; yet when we come to 
ourselves, to know that God is near us, and that 
he loves us as he loves other people if we are 
true to him, and when we think of how his power 
is manifested toward us through the agency of 
the Church of our choice, which is standing by 
us in such a peculiar way, defending, encourag- 
ing, comforting, as well as affording us tangible 
and material aid, we become hopeful, cheerful, 
and determined in a righteous and holy ambition. 

Our people are realizing more and more the 
helpfulness and the importance of our Church, 
and it is manifest that as we are developed more 
intellectually and religiously we are going to turn 
to account all our energy, talents, and means, 
with continually renewed efforts, in a spirit of 
gratitude and recompense to the grand old 
Church. And instead of being mere recipients 
of its gracious benefits, we shall be contributors 
to its wonderful stores of facility, efficiency, in- 
fluence, and power. Thus the colored people 
who are its members shall eventually come to be 
regarded as an important factor in helping to 
make the Methodist Episcopal Church one of the 



THE OUTLOOK 199 

greatest world powers in the evangelization and 
the salvation of the nations of the earth. The 
future is hopeful and bright. 

II 

BY THE REV. D. G. FRANKLIN,, D.D. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has never 
hesitated in declaring the whole counsel of God, 
nor apologized for her stand against sin in all its 
forms. Her wings have been broad enough to 
furnish shelter for God's elect in every quarter of 
the globe, her theology flexible enough to grasp 
all minds, her love warm enough to rescue all 
peoples. 

Methodism has touched with an illuminating 
spark the very life of the Negro, vitalizing and 
shaping his character for usefulness in this great 
world. Evidences of this may be seen every- 
where, in his church life, school life, and home 
life. What the sun is to this old world after the 
long, dreary winter, the Methodist Episcopal 
Church has been to the Negro; after centuries of 
darkness he saw the light and felt the warm, ten- 
der, sympathetic hand of a brother. The Negro, 
like other people, is not immune from other in- 
fluences. He is drawn to all the Churches for 
the same reasons that other people are. Every 
denomination stands for certain principles and 



200 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

ideals, which form the basis of action. This is 
true of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the 
Negro holds on to her with an ever-increasing 
love. He has responded to the call of the Church 
to repent, heard the gospel message from her pul- 
pits. He has been converted at her altars. The 
torchlight of civilization and education has made 
a light for his pathway. He has traveled this path 
to the hilltop, from which, with a larger vision, 
he knows both the Church and himself better. 
He has been made to feel that he is a man, and 
that he has a soul to be saved. Through God's 
medium, the Methodist Episcopal Church, he 
has learned to believe in the universal fatherhood 
of God and the universal brotherhood of man. 
This doctrine has made the Negro believe that his 
friends, yea, some of his best friends are to be 
found among the white people of this country. 
Through these influences many have been 
brought into the Church, have made their mark 
in life, and are living illustrations of the possi- 
bilities of the Negro in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. - 

But, "Watchman, what of the night?" What 
are the signs of the future, yonder in the dim un- 
known? Is the hand once so willing to help 
letting go? It may be lessening as we become 
stronger to stand alone, but not less willing to 
help where it is needed. Is our love for Method- 



THE OUTLOOK 201 

ism growing weaker? Nay, stronger every day. 
"The future is always a fairy land to the young," 
while "Age and sorrow have the gift of reading 
the future by the past." If we are to measure 
the heights yet to be reached by the depths from 
which we have already come, and the high stand- 
ard morally, intellectually, and religiously by the 
accomplishments of the past, to me the future is 
exceedingly bright for the Methodist Episcopal 
Church among the colored people. 

Ill 

BY THE REV. H. B. HART, D.D. 

The future outlook of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church among the colored people is brighter 
than ever. Everywhere our ministers are report- 
ing larger enthusiasm for the work of our people 
and greater liberality toward the support of the 
Church. Her lofty ideas have brought her 
friends from other Churches. They say the 
Methodist Episcopal Church is far-reaching. Our 
people are now opening their eyes everywhere to 
the old Church and realizing that she is a stanch 
friend. Once there was the cry that the Church 
gave no recognition to our men of ability; but 
this cry is heard no longer. Her appointing of 
colored men to responsible positions in the Church 
is too well known to rehearse it here. These col- 



202 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

ored representatives of the Church are doing un- 
told good in putting the Church upon the hearts 
of the people, and are showing the Church that 
the trust put in them is not in vain. 

In the bounds of the Greenville District there 
are 125,000 colored people. As I go the rounds 
they ask about the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and -say she is their friend. When they learn 
what the Church has done for the Negro they 
become inspired to greater effort to show their 
earnest appreciation. As I travel my faith in- 
creases and my hope brightens in the providential 
openings for our Church among our people. 

Never was the future so bright for the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church among the colored people 
as now. Never were our preachers and people 
so enthusiastic to spread the Church more gener- 
ally among our people. Never did the Church 
have such cordial welcome everywhere. Other 
denominations are doing what they can, but what 
are they among so many? The harvest to be 
gathered is seven millions of our people out of 
Christ. The Methodist Episcopal Church will 
have a large share of this important work to do 
for the benefit of the nation and for the glory of 
God. 



THE OUTLOOK 203 

IV 

BY THE REV. H. B. T. WALKER, D.D. 

When there is so much agitation in the news- 
papers as to the segregation of the membership 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the possi- 
bility of the election of a man of color to the 
bishopric, the possible union of the great Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church with the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, one would think it difficult 
to make a true forecast as to the future of the 
Church among colored people; but when it is 
considered that almost all of the agitation as to 
the election of a Negro bishop and the setting 
apart of its colored membership into a separate 
organization is made by persons who are mem- 
bers of other denominations, and invariably by 
those who envy our prosperity and the successful 
work that the old Church is doing among the 
race, it is not nearly so difficult. 

The Negro just coming out of slavery, filled 
with superstition and all its evils, more particu- 
larly with lost confidence, was disposed to look 
upon all white people, whether a missionary or 
former master, with distrust. It required time 
for the old Church to thoroughly convince him 
that she was his friend and that she always had 
been his friend. The Kuklux band came upon 



204 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

him and either set fire to his house or burned his 
crib, and, worse still, burned him at a stake. The 
heartless money-lenders who advanced him small 
loans would figure him out of all his earnings. 
These were all white men. So when the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church sent her teachers and 
preachers to him he hesitated and wondered in his 
heart whether they were his friends. 

Then the emissaries of the race Churches were 
greedy for gain and overanxious to bring him 
into their fold, so they were not careful in their 
sermons and lectures to tell the truth. They told 
him that all white men were his enemies. To the 
illiterate they said, "You are a set of slaves." 
To the educated they said, "You are surrendering 
your manhood to stay in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church." Against all these odds the old Church 
had to fight and the colored membership had to 
contend, but, thank God, truth triumphed and the 
old Church won. 

With the election and appointing of such men 
as Dr. M. C. B. Mason, Dr. R. E. Jones, Dr. I. 
L. Thomas, Dr. C. C. Jacobs, Bishop I. B. Scott, 
and a score of others to places of honor and trust 
the Methodist Episcopal Church has made good 
all its promises, and the race no longer looks 
upon it with suspicion and mistrust, but regards 
it as our best friend. The many schools that be- 
deck and sparkle the Southland, as so many con- 



THE OUTLOOK 205 

stellations in the heavens, are dazzling exponents 
of the love of the Church for the race, and as a 
matter of fact the colored membership is settled 
and secured. The Church has begun to make 
increase in membership that is composed of the 
very best of the race financially, intellectually, and 
morally. 

The growth of the colored membership of the 
Church in the future is going to be so rapid that 
it will be something marvelous. Many of the 
other Churches have not been able to make good 
their promises nor to back up their statements, 
and as a matter of fact they are losing. 

The Negro is religious and as such must have 
a shelter, and as his vision broadens he will be 
satisfied with none other than that which meas- 
ures up to the gospel of Christ. He will certainly 
not find it in a racial Church, for the gospel, when 
looked upon in the true light, stands for the 
salvation of the whole world, all nations and 
kindreds. Then it cannot be denied that as 
Christianity grows upon the vision of man and 
truth triumphs, all race Churches, whether white 
or black, must go. The ten millions of Negroes 
of the South will have to find shelter, and at 
present there are but three Churches that hold 
open great wide doors to the colored man, namely, 
the Catholic, the Protestant Episcopal, and the 
Methodist Episcopal. One of these Churches 



206 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

will receive him, but as we can see it the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church will be the winner. 

The Catholic Church and the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church are full of display and ceremony 
but carry very little fire. This is not suited to 
the religious propensities of the Negro. The 
Negro came from the scorching equatorial regions 
of Africa. His blood is hot. His heart is at 
fever heat. So in order to satisfy his insatiable 
religious appetite nothing less than the flame of 
Pentecost will appease him — the fire that moved 
Peter, moved the Wesleys, and is moving the 
old Church. The colored people will enter her 
doors, and enter by hundreds, thousands, yea, by 
millions. 

If the old Church will continue to herself to be 
true, and stand by her ancient principles of love 
to humanity and preach a world-wide gospel, she 
will not only hold her present colored membership 
but startle the world with her increase. 

V 

BY THE REV. FREEMAN PARKER, D.D. 

Within a very short time after the civil strife 
which resulted in bringing about the Negro's 
freedom the Methodist Episcopal Church entered 
upon its well-chosen mission of teaching the 
Negro how to read and to write. At the outset 



THE OUTLOOK 207 

the outlook in this very noble undertaking was 
dark, but with an optimistic view of the Negro's 
condition and his educational and religious future 
the Church gladly took up the course, and went 
forward erecting at great sacrifice schools and 
churches and carefully appointed well-trained 
Christian teachers and preachers to manage the 
same. These graciously came among us and took 
up the work to which they had been assigned, 
and held on with earnestness and faith. These 
noble Christian workers exercised great patience 
and love at all times, which fact resulted in in- 
stilling confidence and respect in the colored peo- 
ple for these preachers and teachers and the 
Church which they represented so well. 

It was not long, however, before a nucleus for 
our present large and enthusiastic membership 
was formed. This membership is now organized 
into twenty strong, useful, and influential Con- 
ferences, for which we have many reasons to be 
thankful and proud. All along our members 
have enjoyed a growing faith in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. It is clear to my mind that 
the Church has lost neither time nor money on 
the colored people. We greatly appreciate the 
fact that we form a part of a glorious and great 
Church organization. Our faith has been 
strengthened in the fact that the Church has ele- 
vated worthy men and women from among us 



2o8 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

into positions of trust and honor. Among these 
are found Bishop I. B. Scott, Drs. M. C. B. 
Mason, J. W. E. Bowen, R. E. Jones, I. Garland 
Penn, I. L. Thomas, W. H. Crogman, C. C. 
Jacobs, M. W. Dogan, E. M. Jones, J. M. Cox, 
W. W. Lucas, R. S. Lovinggood, and scores of 
others. These faithful and energetic workers 
have the undivided love and confidence of the 
colored membership of the Church. To say that 
we are satisfied and contented with our Church 
connection is not saying too much. The splendid 
reports of the pastors of the twenty colored Con- 
ferences year by year show that sinners are being 
happily converted and saved to Christ and his 
Church. 

In the matter of erecting substantial church 
homes in the cities, towns, and country places of 
our vast territory, we really have no apology to 
offer. The bishops and other representatives of 
the Church believe in us and our ability to 
do things. Being in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church as we are, it offers an opportunity for the 
best and most considerate white men to learn and 
know about us. We meet together year by year 
on the important boards and committees of the 
Church, when perfect accord prevails between us. 
From almost any point of view which one may 
take of the outlook of the colored membership 
as it is related to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 



THE OUTLOOK 209 

we will be forced to conclude that it is exceedingly 
prosperous and bright. I have strong faith in 
the future prospects of the colored members of 
the Church and in their constant growth and 
life and activities for furthering the cause and 
interest of Methodism among men everywhere. 

VI 

BY THE REV. G. H. LENNON 

The Southwestern Christian Advocate in its 
editorials and general information, with personal 
contact within and without the race and observa- 
tion, is a strong evidence to me that the outlook 
of our people is very bright. When we think of 
the many ways that the forty schools supported 
by our Church for the benefit of our race have 
helped to remove the scales of ignorance from our 
eyes, thus giving us a vision of Christian man- 
hood, I cannot but feel that such a mission will 
find a widespread approval among us and as a 
result many more of our people in the near future 
will flock to the Church that is manifesting such 
substantial interest in our welfare. We are very 
much encouraged in the fact that the influence is 
waning of those who have tried so long to keep 
more of our people out of the Church by misrep- 
resentation and beguilement. 

The Church did a great thing for our race 



210 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

when she selected colored men to go over the 
field within the bounds of the colored Confer- 
ences to represent her interests, and informing 
the people generally of her mission to them. The 
people are becoming aroused as never before to 
a recognition of the uplifting influence of our 
great Church. White and colored alike now 
agree that when the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is at work among our people the results are most 
gratifying. Bishop Hoss, of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, does not hesitate to say 
that our Church is producing, all things consid- 
ered, the most exemplary colored people in the 
South. 

It is inspiring to think what God has wrought 
for the race through the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. A large number of persons may be 
found in all the colored denominations who thank 
God for the Methodist Episcopal Church and are 
grateful to this humanity-loving Church for what 
it has done for the race in general. 

There was a time when our members were a 
little nervous when the representatives of colored 
Churches came around and made their appeal in 
behalf of the Church. Since the eminent repre- 
sentatives of our Church have been upon the field 
who are able to cope with the ablest and most 
influential of other denominations there has been 
more loyalty, boldness, enthusiasm, and activity 



THE OUTLOOK 211 

among our people. Many persons to-day who for 
years never gave our Church a passing thought 
are now asking God daily to bless the noble work 
that is being done by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church among the colored people. 



THE FUTURE OUTLOOK FOR THE 
BLACK MAN 

BY THE REV. P. J. MAVEETY, D.D. 

I have now been studying the Negro and his 
outlook at close range for nearly three years. 
But previous to that, as a member of the General 
Committee for seven years, I had the opportunity 
of a secondhand knowledge through the reports 
of their representatives and the bishops on these 
committees. 

Over and over again I am asked, "What do you 
think of the future of the Negro?" At first I 
discreetly refrained from giving an opinion, and 
even now I feel that my closer contact only opens 
up the problems to me and warns me against 
dogmatic statement and conclusion. 

There are a few things that have come to me 
and are borne in upon me with axiomatic force. 

The black man is surely gaining in every 
direction — industrially, intellectually, and mor- 



212 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

ally. When I meet the fine bodies of intelligent 
men and women who gather at our Annual Con- 
ferences, hear the reports of pastors and district 
superintendents, and see the manner in which 
they carry on the business of the Conference, I 
am amazed that these people are but a single 
generation from ignorant and abject slavery. 

I go from school to school and come in contact 
with college presidents, professors, teachers, and 
students of this race, progressive, alert, scholarly. 
I am made acquainted with doctors, lawyers, and 
business men of ability, prosperous, and with ele- 
gant homes and cultivated families. When the 
question is put to me, "Can the black man take 
on our civilization ?" why, he has already taken 
it on in its entirety. I know of nothing he has 
left out. He has even taken on, I am sorry to 
say, its shams and vices. 

Some there are who see only the occasional 
vain dude or the silly woman with high-heeled 
shoes and painted face, and are ready to say that 
our civilization with its boasted freedom is spoil- 
ing the Negro, forgetting the thousands of self- 
respecting, independent, and honest colored peo- 
ple who live and move without attracting com- 
ment. These last are the product of the schools 
and churches. They are multiplying rapidly. 
They constitute our hope for the future of the 
race. They demonstrate the capacity of the race 




o 



U 






THE OUTLOOK 213 

for higher attainments. These are the men and 
women through whom doors now closed are to be 
opened, through whom the race is to be leavened 
with all that is best in modern civilization. The 
Christian schools and churches are at work add- 
ing to the numbers of these from year to year. 
What can be the result ? Only one conclusion 
is possible from what I see and hear. The col- 
ored man is surely coming to the front. Give 
him a little more time. Help him to those things 
that have already demonstrated their ability to 
lift him up and put him on his feet. Encourage 
the good and wise leaders of the race, that they 
may multiply themselves until every village and 
hamlet in the South shall have at least a minister, 
a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, and a business man 
or two, graduates of our Christian schools, as ex- 
amples and instructors through whom the masses 
of the race shall be brought to a self-respecting 
and independent Christian manhood and woman- 
hood. This possibility seems to me to be within 
the sphere of prophecy through the forces now at 
work among the Negro people in the United 
States. 



214 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

HOW TO GATHER THE FOUR MILLIONS 
OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE 
OUT OF CHRIST 



BY THE REV. E. B. BURROUGHS, A.M., D.D. 

Though there are many questions of vast pro- 
portions and far-reaching effect now demanding 
solution at the hands of the Church, we dare 
affirm that none is of greater importance than the 
one we are about to discuss. That this is true 
will be plain to all when it is maintained that not 
only will the management of affairs practical, 
social, and financial of to-morrow be in the hands 
of the young people of to-day, but also that of 
the Church ; and that in proportion as the young 
people of to-day are trained, so will be their con- 
ception of the tremendous responsibilities that 
shall come upon them. Having awakened to a 
realization of this great truth, and with an eye 
single to the glory of God and the moral and 
spiritual advancement of the young people of our 
race, it is but natural that the Church should 
make the inquiry. But the fact that the Church 
has to ask this question is an admission that it has 
either failed to maintain its hold upon the young 
people, or that because of changed conditions the 



THE OUTLOOK 215 

methods used in the past will not suffice for the 
present. Which of these propositions is true we 
shall not now say. Our concern at this time is 
to advance such methods as shall, if properly car- 
ried out, not only cause our young people to come 
into the kingdom, but hold them there. We can 
gather them in, 

1. By proper religious home training. Unfor- 
tunately, all home training is not religious. The 
consequence is that many of them grow up into 
manhood and womanhood without having had 
laid in their hearts a firm religious foundation. 
There is hardly any surprise, then, that they have 
no love for religious institutions. The time to 
train the vine is when it is young. The time to 
train a human being along lines spiritual, intel- 
lectual, economical is when he is young and 
pliable. The home is the nucleus of all institu- 
tions. It is the formation period. The training 
received there lasts throughout time and eternity. 
The sage of Israel says, "Train up a child in the 
way he should go : and when he is old, he will not 
depart from it." It may be that this is not in- 
variably true, but the exception proves the rule. 
Some one has said, "Let me train a child until 
he is twelve years old, and I care not who trains 
him afterward." The Roman Catholics believe 
in and practice early religious training. Conse- 
quently they are able to hold their people. We 



216 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

must make our homes centers of moral and re- 
ligious instruction. There they must be taught 
the history of God's dealing with his people in 
the early ages of the world, the noble examples 
as set forth in the lives of the factors of the early 
Christian Church. Given these instructions, they 
will grow up with an appreciation of God's laws 
and a desire to so live for him that they may live 
with him hereafter. Thus will they be inspired 
to a life of noble endeavor to not be satisfied 
until they "awake in his likeness. ,, Being thus 
trained, they will find and retain their place in 
the kingdom as naturally as water seeks its level. 
2. By proper intellectual training. To proper 
religious home training must be added intellectual 
training. This should begin in the common 
schools. If a knowledge of reading, writing, 
mathematics, science, and art is requisite to suc- 
cess in life, surely a knowledge of one's moral 
and religious obligations to God and his fellow 
man is also necessary. It is to be regretted that 
this great truth has not as yet impressed itself 
upon the school authorities. But that it should 
we think will be admitted by all who have given 
our subject the least consideration. Following 
up the religious training received at home, the 
school should impress it upon the minds of our 
young people that it is true that life is a sacred 
trust and should, therefore, be spent in glorifying 



THE OUTLOOK 217 

God, and endeavoring in every way possible to 
better the condition of humanity and to bring 
back Eden's sinlessness and happiness. Like- 
wise should be the training of our colleges and 
universities. It has come to pass in these days 
that, instead of training our young people to love 
God, many of our institutions train them in the 
opposite direction. The result is that when they 
have completed their course, and return to the 
scene of their early childhood, they find pleasure, 
attraction, and apparent satisfaction in every- 
thing else but the service of God. We admit that 
nearly, if not all, of our colleges and universities 
claim to be religious. But do the results justify 
this claim ? Is it not true that seven tenths of our 
young people whose good fortune it was to attend 
these institutions have no deep abiding religious 
convictions or impressions ? Is it not a fact that 
when they leave their Alma Mater they are of 
little service to the Church? Their spirit of 
criticism, fault-finding, and lack of interest in 
religious matters is proof that their religious 
training as received at the colleges and universi- 
ties which they attended was lamentably defec- 
tive. Our young people should be trained toward 
God and not from him. Being thus educated, 
they will come into and hold their places in the 
kingdom. 

3. By making the Sunday school more attrac- 



2i8 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

tive and effective. The Sunday schools of to-day 
are not doing the work they should. This is 
due very largely to the fact that very few of them 
have any well-regulated system. This statement 
applies to towns and cities as well as to rural 
regions. In most of our Sunday schools size 
and family connections have more to do with the 
classifications than fitness. The result is that 
when our young people reach a certain age they 
lose interest and drop out. Instead of graduating 
from the Sunday school and taking their places 
in the Church, they drift away and in course of 
time are lost to the kingdom. If this tendency 
is to be offset, our schools must see to it that the 
sessions are made more attractive. To do this 
they will have to adopt and put into execution 
the graded system. This will encourage the 
young people to systematically and cheerfully 
study their weekly lessons. Knowing that each 
year means to them possible advancement, they 
will also gradually increase their love for school 
and church with which they are connected. Thus 
they will grow up in the kingdom and become 
strong and uncompromising citizens all the days 
of their lives. 

4. By keeping alive our young people's socie- 
ties. As a rule, young people cannot be expected 
to regard a Christian life with the same degree 
of contentment as older people. This condition 



THE OUTLOOK 219 

comes through age and experience. But until it 
does come they must be held in line; they must 
be given such an abundance of religious and social 
employment as shall gradually hold them to the 
point when they will determine to stand fast in 
the liberty of the gospel. Happily, the employ- 
ment has been provided for in the societies set 
apart for their special benefit by the Church. 
Here they will find all that is necessary for their 
spiritual advancement. But these agencies must 
be kept alive — spiritually alive. The purpose of 
these societies is moral, spiritual, and intellectual 
betterment of our young people. Let them be 
invited and persuaded to connect themselves with 
them, and, having done so, find in them such in- 
fluences as are calculated to incite such a love for 
the kingdom as shall be beyond the possibility of 
being chilled by any other power. 

5. By pure and fervent preaching. The gospel 
has not yet lost its power. There is an attrac- 
tiveness about it that cannot be gainsaid. When- 
ever and wherever it is preached in its purity and 
power it invariably accomplishes that whereunto 
it was sent. The truth is that many of our 
preachers deal more with Shakespeare, Tennyson, 
Browning, science, philosophy, and the ancient 
languages in their sermons than with Jesus. Be- 
sides, "theatricals" are too much resorted to in 
the pulpit. Elocution is all right, but when it is 



220 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the chief thing looked after by a preacher he 
must not wonder that results are what they are. 
What our young people need is spiritual instruc- 
tion, and not entertainment. When they attend 
the public service of the church the gospel should 
be given to them in such a way as to create in 
them the desire to hear it again. The exposition 
of the Scriptures by the preachers of the early 
Christian Church was clear, to the point, and con- 
vincing. Consequently crowds attended upon 
their ministry. Not so now; the people, and 
young people especially, do not go to church to 
hear a message from God, but rather as a pastime. 
If we are to bring the young people into the king- 
dom and hold them we must hold up the beauty 
of the character of Jesus, his great love for a 
fallen and ruined world, his suffering, death, and 
resurrection, the attractiveness of heaven, the 
horrors of hell, and the triumphs that shall surely 
come to those who walk in the ways of the 
Lord. 

6. By personal examples. Regret it as we 
may, we must nevertheless admit that the exam- 
ple of Christian living and service as set by many 
professed Christians is not what it should be. 
Too many of the older members of the Church 
are careless, indifferent, and lukewarm. Is it 
any wonder that our young people are not more 
firmly impressed with the necessity of following 



THE OUTLOOK 221 

more closely in the paths marked out in the 
Scriptures? With these indisputable facts upon 
us can we really expect our young people to come 
into the kingdom and stay there? Let us face 
the issue like men and, seeing wherein we have 
erred, determine to live more righteously in the 
future than in the past. Thus doing we shall set 
such an example of the life-giving power of Chris- 
tianity as shall cause our young people to see the 
imperative necessity of imitating our examples 
and glorifying God in their day and generation. 
We should remember that Christ says, "Ye are 
my witnesses." By this he means that whatever 
the world knows of him it must know through 
us. We must think his thoughts, speak his 
words, and live his life. Setting such examples 
before our young people, they will be constrained 
to come into the kingdom. You ask what this 
will mean to the race. It will mean a more ag- 
gressive and evangelical Church. Get the indi- 
vidual right and you get the Church right. 
As long as the membership of the Church 
fails to measure to the standard of our 
Christianity, so long will it fail to perfectly ac- 
complish the purpose for which it was instituted. 
It is through the Church that the world is to be 
brought back to God. The millions now in spir- 
itual darkness must be saved. This cannot be 
done by those who are careless and indifferent. 



222 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

One must first be saved himself before he will be 
moved to an aggressiveness against the force of 
vice and immorality that cannot help but bring 
about their ultimate downfall. Following this 
will come a spirit of evangelistic enthusiasm that 
will not be satisfied until the kingdoms of this 
world shall have become the kingdom of our Lord 
and Christ. 

7. By a better home life. The home life can 
never be bigger than the individual who makes 
it. This accounts for many of our homes being 
no better than they are. The young people of 
to-day are to found the homes of to-morrow. 
If we can get them into the kingdom their homes 
will be places in which the principles of Chris- 
tianity, peace, and prosperity abound. Like 
Joshua, they will see to it that their households 
keep the ways of the Lord. Doing this, the mar- 
riage tie will be respected, virtue duly honored, 
and all men be regarded as brothers. 

8. By a purer social life. Society as it now 
stands is far from what it should be. There is 
decidedly too much gossip, impurity of speech, 
and many other things holding sway therein. 
If we can get our young people in the kingdom 
they will see that it is purified and made safe, so 
that anyone can move in it. Questionable amuse- 
ments will no longer be tolerated. Men and 
women of low and immoral practice will be ostra- 



THE OUTLOOK 223 

cized, and will begin to understand that they 
must keep their place until they show satisfactory 
proofs that they are determined to live clean and 
honorable lives. Moral character rather than 
color, ancestry, or financial worth will then deter- 
mine one's social standing. 

9. By a purer manhood and womanhood. God 
made men pure and upright. Sin came into the 
world and changed that condition. Christ also 
came into the world, and with his coming has 
come the possibility of man's attaining a condi- 
tion of purity and uprightness. If we can get 
our young people into the kingdom they will be 
helped by determined forces to overcome evil. 
Their thoughts, words, and deeds will be pleasing 
unto their Father in heaven, and their lives pure 
and acceptable in his sight. With the standard 
of right living upon them they will daily aspire 
unto all that is noble, beautiful, and true. 

II 

BY THE EDITOR 

The thought of four millions of young people 
of the Negro race in America alone being out of 
the Sunday school calls for serious thought. The 
future hope of any race is in its youth. Not in 
an unchristian, untrained youth ; for it is only in 
the proper training and consecration of youthful 



224 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

strength that the future of any people is made 
secure. 

The religious training which the Sunday school 
offers is fundamental. It is necessary in the 
building of character. No person devoid of early 
training in the Sunday school, and of that piety 
which it produces, can be counted on to measure 
up to the full requirement of citizenship. A 
knowledge of God's Word, and the example of 
obedience to the same, is the greatest legacy that 
any race or people can hand down to succeeding 
generations. For it is the Word of God that 
lights up the path of the young and guides to the 
loftiest manhood and womanhood. 

It is, then, our Christian duty to leave no stone 
unturned which will gather into the Church of 
God every boy and girl, even those who are but 
subjects for the Cradle Roll. 

But the problem is, how can all this be accom- 
plished ? The question suggests the four million 
young people of our race in this country who are 
practically unreached by the civilizing and Chris- 
tianizing influences of the Sunday school. How 
can they be reached ? 

I answer, by organized efforts and individual 
contact. There is an incentive which comes from 
organization that cannot otherwise be realized. 
I think that all Christian denominations ought to 
unite under that international, interdenomina- 



THE OUTLOOK 225 

tional Sunday School Association, with the one 
determination to march in elbow touch, until not 
only the four million young people of color, but 
every boy and girl in America, yea, in the whole 
world, shall be housed in Sunday schools. 

The annual and semiannual coming together of 
all the Christian forces with the one aim to save 
the boys and girls will, in my opinion, accom- 
plish more than any single denominational effort. 
It will create a holy rivalry which will hasten the 
end we seek. It will necessitate contact on the 
part of Christian workers, which will inspire and 
sharpen them for more and better work. 

Again, we must organize in our local ranks to 
do more personal work. We cannot shoot at 
long range and accomplish the same results as 
when we are in close contact. That general who 
commanded his soldiers not to shoot until they 
could see the white of the enemies' eyes knew the 
possibilities of close contact and has set an ex- 
ample for Christian workers. 

Much of the firing we do from our pulpits and 
Sunday school classrooms is simply time wasted. 
We can reach some that way, it is true, but there 
are many others to whom we must come down 
from our pulpits and out of our classrooms and 
go after. Sunday school superintendents and 
teachers ought to visit more, with a view of win- 
ning the wayward little ones to Jesus. 



226 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Do not leave all of this work for the pastor, 
for very often he spends most of his time going 
after older sinners, many of whom count for com- 
paratively little, even after they are reached. 

Let us visit the careless and erring ones, take 
them by the hand, and invite them to Jesus, the 
Sunday school, and the church services. Then 
when they come let us make it a point to meet 
them, and have them feel at home among us. 
Do not take up all the time after services greeting 
relatives and friends. Go after the lost lambs 
of the house of Israel. 

With every Christian worker living above re- 
proach, and living for the salvation of others, 
together with the incentives which come from 
touching elbows in the Master's service, I believe 
it would not be long until greater results than we 
can now realize would be accomplished. 

I do not think there is much serious opposition 
on the part of the unreached. I rather think 
there is a lack of thorough consecration on the 
part of many of our Christian workers. 

But what would it mean to the Negro race to 
have four million more on the firing line of right- 
eousness and truth? It would strengthen the 
race and put us on a vantage ground in the 
American nation upon which we have never 
stood. It would put us where God could use us to 
greater advantage, and win for us a place in the 



THE OUTLOOK 227 

religious history of the world that would be as 
conspicuous as the rising sun. 

Ill 

BY THE REV. B. MACK HUBBARD, D.D. 

Writers of no mean literary ability with fer- 
tile brains and versatile pens have sought to point 
the way, but the unreached are still unreached. 

Since the people in question do not attend Sun- 
day school nor church it is clearly to be seen that 
they cannot be reached through the regular stated 
services of the church ; then what ? The Master 
has said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature.' ' I think the above 
passage is the key to the situation. The Master, 
doubtless, having it in mind that there would be 
many who would have to be reached in the 
streets, lanes, and hedges, because of a lack of 
inclination on their part to attend the regular 
services at the church, made it possible for them 
to be saved by telling his apostles to go into all 
the world and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture. 

Hence the missionary society, in carrying out 
the divine injunction — for it was as truly to us 
as to the apostles who attended the blessed Christ 
— can and ought to inaugurate missionary cam- 
paigns in the cities and in the rural districts for 



228 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the purpose of reaching and gathering in the 
young people who do not come under immediate 
influence of the pastor in the station or the circuit 
rider. Let the campaigns be systematically ar- 
ranged and the work put in charge of efficient 
workers, lovers of men's souls rather than dollars, 
under recruiting and distributing agents, making 
weekly or monthly reports of the work done to a 
bureau secretary. 

With the above mentioned missionary machin- 
ery properly worked untold good will result 
toward the reaching and gathering in of the un- 
reached and the spreading of the kingdom of 
grace and glory. They must be reached and 
gathered in, and some kind of a plan is necessary. 
I therefore suggest, or recommend, the above as 
being calculated to meet the condition, in part if 
not in whole. Let us, with faith in the plan, in 
ourselves, and in the Eternal God, raise the rally- 
ing cry, "The world for Christ !" 

This can be done; if not, Christianity is a 
failure. God forbid! But let the human race 
be saved through world-wide Christianity, which 
is all-sufficient. We are God's colaborers. It is 
our duty, then, to assist him in whatever way 
possible to save the world. If the people do not 
attend the church we must as far as we can go to 
them with the message of salvation. 

The second question, "What will it mean to the 



THE OUTLOOK 229 

race to save them?" is also worthy of considera- 
tion. If we are successful in bringing them to 
the kingdom of Christ it will mean that we are 
worthy of the grave responsibility put upon us in 
helping God to save our neighbors just as any 
other race. As a race, we would not be worthy 
of our place in the Christian world should we fail 
to hasten the coming of the kingdom of the Lord 
Jesus to the extent of saving the four million 
young people of the race who at present do not 
attend Sunday school or church. 

Brother missionary and Christian workers, to 
your posts ! The battle cry is sounded, the foe is 
nigh. Wickedness is arrayed against righteous- 
ness, the world against the kingdom of Christ, 
and hell against heaven. The foe must be con- 
quered, the world saved. The great triumphant 
shout awaits us, "Hallelujah! The Lord is 
King!" 

IV 

BY THE REV. DANIEL W. SHAW, D.D. 

How to do what has not been done is perhaps 
a more difficult thing than to find a new way to 
do that which has been done. That we have a 
great mass of unchurched people is a well-estab- 
lished fact, but how to win them to God and the 
Church furnishes a problem for the Christian 
sociologist which may well command his highest 



230 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

thought and move him to his deepest consecra- 
tion. 

The work and effort which does not bring these 
things to pass seems to me to be wasted effort. 
Theories which cannot be crystallized into human 
conduct and incarnated into human life and sent 
out into the world to do good find standing room 
but for a short time on the desk in my study. 
Therefore, the best answer I can give to this 
question is to clearly state what I have actually 
done as pastor to reach the unchurched about me. 

In the city of Cleveland, Ohio, I used these 
methods : 

i. I went out on the streets into the midst of 
bystanders and into the homes of the people with 
religious zeal and pregnant faith and sought to 
impress those whom I met with the fact that I 
sought them simply for themselves and not for 
anything they had to give. All those upon whom 
I was able to fasten that impression I could get 
to the church usually after I had paid two or 
three visits to their homes. 

2. I sent out two by two the members of the 
Ladies' Missionary Society, who followed me into 
all the homes where I had been, and where they 
found the naked they clothed them; where they 
found the hungry they fed them ; and where they 
found the sanitary conditions about the sick un- 
favorable, and needing the touch of woman, they 



THE OUTLOOK 231 

laid off their wraps and put things to rights; 
where medicines were needed for the sick they 
furnished them. The news of our good inten- 
tions went ahead of us, and we were welcomed 
everywhere, and the people in turn, guided by the 
direction of our parochial card, found their way 
to the church, and finally under the transforming 
power of the gospel they became new creatures 
and united with the Church. 

3. Where both of these methods failed, as they 
did with some, I resorted to the "free social." 
The members and friends of the church provided 
abundant refreshments, the young people gave a 
fine musicale, and the doors were thrown open 
free to all who would come. To these free 
socials the missionaries and pastor bore special 
invitations to the unchurched, sometimes send- 
ing an escort to make their coming easy. Every- 
body was supposed to meet everybody else, and a 
lookout committee was appointed to see that 
strangers were not left to spend a lonely minute. 
They were passed along from one member of the 
committee to another until the close of the social, 
and by that time these visitors felt so much at 
home that they became missionaries for us to 
those whom they knew, and it was surprising how 
rapidly we got a grip on the community, and in a 
few years put nearly two hundred new names on 
the church roll. 



232 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

In the city of Charleston, West Virginia, I 
found a peculiarly perplexing condition among 
the young men. They were musical, but their 
beautiful voices were in the service of sin and 
Satan; for they had taken their banjos, guitars, 
and mandolins and gone to the saloons to enter- 
tain the bad men and women who frequent such 
places. To the regular church services they paid 
little attention, not yielding to my invitation, 
however urgent I made it. Learning that they 
were musical, I said, "I will try music." I like- 
wise canvassed among the young men until I got 
some fifty or more to promise me that they would 
attend a class to study music and musical drama. 
I had a blackboard painted on the walls of the 
Sunday school room. I laid out the musical 
staff, and gave them free of charge twenty-min- 
ute instruction in the rudiments of music two 
evenings each week. Then I gave some instruc- 
tion in voice-making and general music culture. 
I got them interested. We sang great choruses ; 
we sang fine dramatic biblical cantatas, such as 
"Esther, the Beautiful Queen/' "Jephthah and 
His Daughter/' "David, the Shepherd Boy." In 
the second year they were safely won from the 
saloon, and a gracious revival came from the 
presence of the Lord and one hundred and ten 
souls were gathered into the church. Five years 
after I had closed that pastorate I went back to 




Group 8 



Mrs. G. R. Strickland 

Miss Bessie M. Garrison, A.B. 



Mrs. Emma C. White 
Mrs. Rosa Simpson 



THE OUTLOOK 233 

visit that church and found several of those 
young men serving on the official board. 

From this narration I think I have the right to 
say that the unchurched can be gotten, and the 
way to get them is to go after them, sympatheti- 
cally, lovingly, religiously, zealously, hopefully, 
and with common sense, taking hold of the people 
where they are and then gradually, by song and 
prayer and preaching, lifting them to the plat- 
form of redeemed humanity. To this end is the 
Board of Home Missions and Church Extension 
building churches, that faithful men point the 
wayward and the lost the way to Christ, who by 
his pierced hands lifted empires off their hinges 
and set a new date in history. 



HOW CAN WE BEST UTILIZE THE 
YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE INTER- 
EST OF HOME MISSIONS AND 
CHURCH EXTENSION? 

BY MISS IDA R. CUMMINGS 

We are living in a busy age — an age when in 
church, home, and state the watchword is "For- 
ward"; and the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
which you and I are members is noted for its 
aggressiveness. Hence not long since there came 



234 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

a great readjustment of the benevolent boards, 
one of the purposes being to more deeply impress 
a better foundation upon which the building of 
the kingdom of God should be erected. 

You know how Ezra tells us that when the 
people of God returned from their captivity in 
Babylon they came together as one man to Jeru- 
salem and built the altar of the God of Israel 
and offered burnt offerings thereon; that they 
kept all the feasts of Jehovah and willingly of- 
fered free-will offerings unto him. Then the 
builders laid the foundation of the new temple, 
and when the people come together to celebrate 
this event they sang one to another, praising and 
giving thanks to Jehovah, saying, "He is good, 
for his mercy endureth forever." And while all 
the singers sang, all the people shouted with a 
great shout because the foundations of the house 
of Jehovah were laid. 

Now, what is the work of Home Missions 
and Church Extension? Simply this, the laying 
of new foundations for the kingdom of God. 
How can we utilize and interest the young people 
in this work? By clearly and definitely stating 
the facts. Just think, the Board of Home Mis- 
sions and Church Extension is aiding in the sup- 
port of missions in four thousand different places 
in the United States. Its work among ten mil- 
lions of colored people in America has in it the 



THE OUTLOOK 235 

greatest promise for the ultimate salvation of 
Africa. Over three hundred and sixty-five 
churches must be helped every year, or else many 
of the children of men whom Christ died to save 
must never hear the story of the Cross. We 
must give freely, willingly, constantly, or else the 
Board of Home Missions and Church Extension 
cannot aid in building more than the fifteen thou- 
sand churches which it has so grandly done. We 
must come in contact with this evangelizing 
factor, for contact means opportunity, opportu- 
nity means responsibility, and unless we assume 
this responsibility there will be many 

"Perishing, perishing, thronging our pathway, 

Hearts breaking with burdens too heavy to bear; 
Jesus would care, but there's no one to tell them, 
No one to save them from sin and despair." 

Another way to utilize and interest the young 
people in Home Missions and Church Extension 
after stating the facts is to pray — pray that God 
may enable them to hear the call as given by him 
that this work may be done. I believe God gives 
definite, specific power to people to catch a vision 
of their lifework. I believe God calls people and 
gives them their work, and woe unto those who 
are deaf to the call. God called John Stewart, 
the first home missionary of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, a colored man born in Powhatan 
County, Virginia. He was powerfully converted 



236 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

and was the instrument in God's hand of bringing 
many Indians to know and love Jesus. God 
called Abraham — told him to go, and by going he 
now bears the title "Father of the Faithful. ,, 
God called David from the sheepfold to the 
throne. God called Wycliffe yonder in England 
more than five hundred years ago to fight until 
he died that we might have religious liberty. God 
called Luther, who nailed upon the door of the 
church at Wittenberg his theses, and because he 
heard the call the Reformation was born in a day. 
God called Savonarola, that old monk in the city 
of Florence, when the Church was corrupt, when 
no one stood for the right. That monk de- 
nounced aloud the sins of the people, and though 
they dragged him from the pulpit, burned him at 
the stake, cast his ashes into the Arno, yet he lives 
to-day. God called Wesley to preach free grace 
and salvation and the doors were closed against 
him. He stood on his father's grave and preached 
the gospel until all England heard the news and 
America caught the sound. God called Fred 
Douglass when the country was a great auction 
block and man sold his brethren as though they 
were cattle. Douglass pleaded in America and 
England until half the nation joined in the cry 
with shot and shell and freedom. Blessed free- 
dom was won. God called Frances Willard, a 
noble, godly woman, a member of the Methodist 



THE OUTLOOK 237 

Episcopal Church, whose father sang every day 
to her, "A charge to keep I have," until the words 
burned themselves into her being and she heeded 
her Master's call. She gave her life to the great 
cause of temperance, and to-day the great moral 
wave that is sweeping over our country is largely 
due to the tears, prayers, and efforts of the God- 
fearing women who wear the white ribbon. 

America must be won for Christ, and the 
young people must play a large part in this work 
if true to the "faith of our fathers." First they 
must hear the voice of God, then the voice of. 
man ; this is the true order, and wonderful results 
always follow the combination. About us are 
those who are out of touch with the Lord, keepers 
of houses where vice reigns supreme, people 
whose highest aim is but to live in the moment, 
children whose greatest heritage is sin and its 
consequences. What an excellent opportunity 
for Church Extension by young people whose 
lives have been charged with the Holy Ghost! 
Something above us and greater than we can 
ever be is to come in and win the victory within 
us and for us. For, after all, the highest law of 
the Christian life is to yield ourselves absolutely 
to the Holy Spirit ; then it is we fully realize the 
world is in a great emergency through sin, and 
young men and women should enlist in the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of mission classes 



238 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

which under wise direction will eventually lead 
to the beginning of strong churches. 

With the vast army of young people in our 
Queen Esther Societies, Epworth Leagues, the 
Sunday school, and other organizations of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church systematically and 
prayerfully at work, I believe the day not far dis- 
tant when 

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run." 

For this, as servants of God, let us labor and 
pray, ever keeping before us as an incentive and 
inspiration, "We can if we will." 



THE CONDITION OF OUR SUNDAY 
SCHOOL WORK 

BY THE EDITOR 

The most important duty that confronts us 
to-day is to lay well the foundation of the Church 
of to-morrow; that is, to teach the children to 
love Christ and to become faithful members of 
his Church. The noblest life that anyone can 
live is to help turn the world from sin by right 
living and liberal giving. The way sin is reach- 
ing out to capture the young people is arousing 
the Church to make every effort to keep within 
its fold those dedicated to Christ in childhood. 



THE OUTLOOK 239 

The statistics of the Sunday schools within the 
bounds of the colored Conferences show an en- 
rollment in nearly every Conference much less 
than the membership of the churches. The fact 
that a number of young people are members of 
the church, and not of the Sunday school, ac- 
counts for this situation. The poverty of our 
people compels their children to work at an early 
age. The hour for Sunday school is at a time 
when many busy young people cannot attend. 
Another reason may be that the importance of 
sending the children to Sunday school is not 
given due consideration by parents and guar- 
dians; children are allowed their own choice in 
the matter. Sunday attractions of to-day are 
drawing young people away from the Sunday 
school, and unless greater effort is put forth to 
attract and hold them there will be a smaller 
attendance in the future. 

A vigorous effort must be made to increase 
the attendance in the Sunday school. Pastors, 
by visiting the children in the homes and also in 
the nursery department of the church, may greatly 
help to secure and hold the children for the Sun- 
day school and the church. More missionary 
work must be done to gather those children into 
the Sunday school who because of environment 
most need our help. Christian parents who fail 
to send their children to Sunday school neglect 



240 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

one of the most vital things in the future making 
of the child's life. They unconsciously start their 
children adrift on unknown seas and retard the 
spread of the kingdom of Christ by opening the 
door for their children to go out of the kingdom. 
Let not this charge be made against you at the 
judgment. 



THE EPWORTH LEAGUE IN OUR 
COLORED CONFERENCES 

BY THE EDITOR 

It is safe to say that no work among us has 
given satisfaction in such large measure as that 
among the young people, led by Dr. I. Garland 
Penn, of South Atlanta, Georgia, assistant general 
secretary of the Epworth League. Fourteen years 
ago, when he began his labors, being the second 
man of the race to be put into the field work, 
there were scarcely any Epworth League chap- 
ters among us. After his election greater inter- 
est was manifested. This interest has not dimin- 
ished, but has constantly increased until there is a 
total number of two thousand six hundred and 
seventy Senior and Junior chapters in our twenty 
colored Conferences; and chapters are constantly 
being organized swelling this number. 

Bishop Joseph F. Berry and Secretary E. M. 



THE OUTLOOK 241 

Randall in their report to the General Conference 
of 1908, on behalf of the Board of Control, say 
that there is a greater percentage of Leagues to 
the number of churches among the colored people 
than there is among the white people of our 
Methodism. This is true also, that there is a 
greater percentage of League chapters among us 
than young people's societies among the distinc- 
tively Negro Church organizations, there being 
more chapters in our colored Conferences of three 
hundred thousand members than there are in the 
African Methodist and the African Methodist 
Zion Churches put together. 

The good result of these twelve years of dis- 
tribution of League and Church literature by 
Secretary Penn can hardly be estimated. He 
has literally educated our colored membership in 
the vital phases of our work. He has personally 
circulated over forty thousand dollars' worth of 
literature, to say nothing of what was stimulated 
by him and ordered direct from the Book Con- 
cern. To his work in a large measure we have 
now such enviable standing among the distinc- 
tively Negro Church organizations. As our 
young people's leader he originated and brought 
to successful completion the greatest movement 
ever begun among us in the Interdenominational 
Young People's Christian Congress, which has 
held two meetings. It requires a suite of rooms 



242 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

for office purposes in South Atlanta, Georgia, to 
accommodate the work which the League is doing 
in organizing, circulating, and scattering litera- 
ture in every city, town, and country district of 
the South. 

In view of the great amount of literature sold 
and the help which Secretary Penn gets from the 
League and churches direct, it cannot be said 
that the League work of the South has been a 
great burden; therefore there has never been a 
hint of its discontinuance in these twelve years. 
It has always justified the wisdom of its contin- 
uance. It has never been in position to do 
greater work than now. The writer happens to 
know that the forward movements already 
planned and under way, and the efficient manner 
which our League secretary's experience and abil- 
ity will enable him to do his work, mean for this 
phase of Church work in the South the greatest 
possible results. 

The Epworth League work among the colored 
membership is self-supporting. This and other 
quadrenniums will witness marvelous results by 
the Christian young people of our race in the 
training and salvation of themselves and their 
fellows. 



THE OUTLOOK 243 

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SAVE OUR 
GIRLS FROM GOING ASTRAY? 

BY MRS. FLORENCE DUNGEE-CARROLL, A.B. 

When we look around us and see to what ex- 
tent our girls are going astray we question our- 
selves as to the causes, and what can be done to 
remedy this evil. 

To my mind, one of the most prevalent causes 
for the downfall of our girls is the dance hall. 
Here, in some instances, are to be found girls at 
the tender age of fourteen in the company of 
men many years their senior. Many of these men 
are not fit to be in the presence of these girls, to 
say nothing of taking them in their arms for the 
dance. "Out of the abundance of the heart the 
mouth speaketh." These men are corrupt, hence 
their conversation is such that it fills the minds 
of these girls with vileness which will spring up 
and bear its fruit as surely as the tares among the 
wheat. I know of a city where on a certain 
evening of each week a dancing class is con- 
ducted by a set of men whose characters are not 
the best, and it is a known fact that several girls 
of that city who have gone astray started on 
their downward course in this dancing class. 

One other cause is the cheap theater, the vaude- 
ville, where women with no sense of shame ap- 



244 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

pear before their audiences clad in mere apolo- 
gies for raiment. Is it any wonder that a girl 
seeing such sights is led into the downward path 
of sin? It would be a good thing if something 
could be done to prevent the public posting of 
bills which advertise such plays. 

Still another cause is the passing of the social 
wine cup at receptions, and at Christmas, that 
sacred festival which commemorates the birth of 
our Lord, and which should be observed in rev- 
erence and worship, but which in many instances 
is observed more as a feast of Bacchus. Our 
girls get the taste of strong drink, which de- 
velops into a greater appetite, until, as a serpent 
coils itself around its victim until life is crushed 
out, so the girl has all the moral life crushed out 
of her. 

We may divide the girls who go astray into 
several classes. There are those girls whose 
whole environment is bad, who have no good ex- 
amples set for them at home. These simply 
follow the lead given them and drift farther and 
farther away from right. Another class is made 
up of girls whose environments are good, but 
whose parents do not exercise enough watchful- 
ness over them. These girls, while they see 
nothing bad at home, yet are allowed to go when 
and where they will, and hence come in contact 
with persons and see things which they should 



THE OUTLOOK 245^ 

not. The mothers feel that they are living right 
before their daughters, and that this is sufficient 
protection for them. 

Another mistake often made by mothers is al- 
lowing their daughters to take part in social af- 
fairs while they are students. The girls are al- 
lowed to attend functions where they are kept, 
in many instances, till the wee hours of the next 
morning. They get but a few hours' sleep, and 
are off for school — with a clear mind ? No, they 
are dull and sluggish, able to take in but little 
and to give out less. They fail year after year, 
until, finally discouraged, they drop out of school 
with a smattering of learning which is not suffi- 
cient to keep them from going after those things 
which tend to drag them down. 

I ask any teacher who has this sort of thing 
with which to contend to bear witness to the 
statement that his or her most successful work is 
done with those pupils whose time is devoted to 
their studies and who observe the rules for proper 
rest. 

Mothers, if you would keep your daughters 
pure, give more attention to them. Encourage 
them to talk freely to you. Make yourselves 
their companions, and they will prefer your so- 
ciety to that of others. Have a knowledge of the 
books they read. See to it that they attend no 
social functions that are questionable; and when 



246 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

they go at all, let it not be without the proper 
chaperonage. 

Do not permit any man to visit your daughter 
who is in any way a mystery, or is known to be 
of unsavory character. There are fiends who go 
around in the guise of respectable men with no 
other purpose than to lead girls astray, and they 
take a delight in wrecking the purest homes. 
There comes to my mind the case of a young 
girl who was led astray by a man many years 
older than she. He was regarded as a friend of 
the family, was trusted and esteemed by them. 
He took advantage of this confidence and brought 
shame and sorrow to that home. 

The churches can help save the girls by organ- 
izing wholesome clubs where the minds of the 
young can be so filled with good things that there 
will be no room for the bad to creep in. Our 
great Methodist Episcopal Church is meeting this 
need through its organizations for young people, 
such as the Epworth League, the Queen Esther 
Circle, a department of the Woman's Home Mis- 
sionary Society, and others. Some churches 
have sewing and reading clubs. I know of 
one church which has a well-appointed gym- 
nasium. 

How careful is the florist with his plants ! He 
sees to it that they have sufficient water and sun- 
shine, and he allows no destructive worms to grow 



THE OUTLOOK 247 

at their roots. Let the mothers be even more 
careful of the precious souls intrusted to their 
care. Let them first get a knowledge of Christ 
themselves, and then see to it that their girls have 
the proper religious and moral training. God 
has given them a sacred trust; may they prove 
faithful to it! Let the watchword to our girls 
be the old German proverb : 

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; 
When health is lost, something is lost; 
When character is lost, all is lost." 



THE CITY PROBLEM TOUCHING OUR 
PEOPLE 

BY THE REV. M. J. NAYLOR, D.D. 

The growth of great cities is the marvel of 
modern times. How to meet the intricate condi- 
tions that arise in consequence is our greatest 
civic problem. The spirit of adventure and rest- 
lessness is abroad everywhere. Rapid transit by 
land and sea makes all men neighbors. Ships 
and railroads travail, and cities are born in a day. 
Large cities like New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, Washington, Chicago, Saint Louis, and 
Pittsburg furnish an aggregation of human 
problems tremendous in their proportions. Here 



248 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

all the extremes meet in a frantic struggle for 
adjustment. Into these great cities has come a 
constant stream of colored people, increasing in 
volume through the years, until there are to-day, 
in round numbers, 90,000 in Washington, 85,000 
in Baltimore, 75,000 in New York, 70,000 in 
Philadelphia, 50,000 in Pittsburg, 45,000 in Saint 
Louis, and 35,000 in Boston. They come with 
ignorance, innocence, and a desire to work as 
their greatest asset. They come seeking larger 
liberty, greater opportunity, protection of the law, 
education for their children, and better remuner- 
ation for their toil. Many, however, find liberty 
all too soon and to their everlasting regret. They 
come for better homes, but are relegated by pov- 
erty to those unsanitary sections of the city where 
life becomes a constant struggle with disease un- 
til they are borne from these haunts of death to 
untimely graves. The Health Department of 
Baltimore some time ago gave out a statement 
showing the death rate per 1,000 for the entire 
population to be 14.44. For the white people 
alone the rate was 12.34, while for the colored 
it was 26. I have no doubt that this condition 
finds its parallel in every city. Comparative 
statistics, however, show that the death rate of 
the colored and the white in rural districts is 
about the same; thus showing that the primal 
cause of this dreadful difference in the death rate 



THE OUTLOOK 249 

is ignorance and poverty. Some of the more 
competent come to the cities expecting employ- 
ment in some of the higher-class occupations, but 
finding themselves barred by relentless prejudice 
from without and socially ostracized by their own 
people from within (at least they feel that they 
are on account of the menial service in which 
they are forced to engage), they drift at last into 
paths of idleness, vice, and death. 

There are thousands of unscrupulous money- 
making combinations organized for the sole pur- 
pose of bringing innocent colored girls from the 
South for immoral purposes. These agents of 
vice hold out great promises, especially to those 
who are physically attractive. When they arrive 
they are treated like so many cattle; forced to 
sign contracts that impose obligations that finally 
result in their moral and physical death in a few 
sad and remorseful years. 

The conditions surrounding the young men are 
very little better. It cannot be expected that their 
moral and spiritual level will be higher than that 
of their sisters. The "societies" of vice are be- 
coming more desperate in their methods. They 
must have our young men to successfully carry 
out their schemes. The tide of destruction is 
rising in our great cities. What is to be done 
about this awful condition? This leads us to 
consider the necessity of increasing our mission- 



250 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

ary efforts in these great centers. Organized 
kindness is the demand of the hour, to turn the 
stream of these innocent hordes from the ways 
that lead to the "Tenderloin" to paths of indus- 
try, frugality, and virtue. 

The social settlement plan is working wonders 
for other races. This plan introduces employ- 
ment bureaus, reading rooms, club rooms, kinder- 
gartens, day nurseries, gymnasiums, music rooms, 
rescue societies, facilities for learning trades — in 
short, every kind of agency to meet all sorts of 
human needs. The colored people cannot save 
themselves in these great cities. The same must 
be done for them that is being done with encour- 
aging success for the Russian, Italian, Greek, Jew, 
Hungarian, Pole, and other nationalities by 
philanthropists and definite organized move- 
ments under the direction of the Churches. It is 
these people of foreign tongues and customs, 
struggling to adjust themselves to new conditions 
under our free institutions, who have the helpful 
assistance of these agencies that I have named. 
What these newly made citizens require in the 
way of protection and guidance and sympathy is 
due even to a greater extent to the multitudes of 
native colored people who swarm our cities. 

Who are to do this mighty work that confronts 
us in all its stupendous proportions? There is 
only one answer: The Christian people of the 






THE OUTLOOK 251 

Christian Church. The colored Churches are 
doing something along the lines indicated, but 
this is wholly inadequate. The city missionary 
society has done much ; but both of these agencies 
combined have accomplished all too little to meet 
the needs of the case. There are sections in all 
our great cities where nothing short of an "open 
church" built on the largest possible scale can do 
the work. This great institution should embrace 
all the phases outlined in the "social settlement 
plan," and should be so complete as to provide 
or at least greatly assist in providing for this new 
civic condition to be found in nearly every great 
American city. The Board of Home Missions 
and Church Extension can greatly aid by coopera- 
tion with agencies already at work in accomplish- 
ing so desirable an object. I am sure it will. 
God save our cities ! 



DIFFICULTIES OF HOME MISSIONARY 
EFFORT AMONG NEGROES IN 
NORTHERN CITIES 

BY THE REV. W. C. STOVALL, M.A., B.D. 

The Northern Negro is essentially a city man, 
and the modern question for every nation, says 
Dean Farrar, is the question of the city. Said 
Bishop Huntingdon, long in the forefront of the 



252 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Anglican Church in the battle for the submerged 
masses of London, "Cities are the chief seats of 
human life in the consecrated energy and diver- 
sified power — power of population, power of 
brain and will and wealth, power of right and 
power of wrong." 

The increased coming of large numbers, in- 
creased homelessness, the searching and remorse- 
less influence of pride and worldliness, the con- 
stant moving from place to place, the nervous 
tension of the population, the large number of 
varied attractions, all increase and multiply dif- 
ficulties. The religious frontiers of the Negro 
are no longer scattered through settlements at the 
South, but in the closely populated cities at the 
North. The rural districts at the South have 
become the skirmish line, the cities at the North 
the battlefront, of the Negro wing of the Church. 

Let us, therefore, seek a closer analysis of the 
conditions with which the Methodist Episcopal 
Church has to contend in its missionary work 
among the Negroes, and first let us consider the 
moral disadvantages of city life. 

I. One of the most insidious foes the Church 
finds in the large municipality is the weakening 
of the sense of personal responsibility. It has 
been remarked that in the opinion of some the 
city seems a sort of New Jerusalem, in which, 
when a man arrives, he can roll off for good the 




Group 9 



S. Lovinggood, Ph.D, 
L. Smith, A.M., LL.B. 



E. H. McKissack, A.M. 
J. E. McGirt, A.B. 



THE OUTLOOK 253 

burden of responsibility which he used to carry 
faithfully in the old home town whence he came. 
There is something in the atmosphere of the city 
which disintegrates the sense of moral responsi- 
bility to others and to the community, hence 
small-town church members on moving to the 
city degenerate into church tramps or settle down 
among the unchurched. This spirit is seen 
further in the utter indifference of citizens to re- 
form, as Stead remarks in an article concerning 
thieves; he inquired why the people did not pJ: 
the rascals out of the city hall. "What's the use? 
We would most likely get a worse lot in their 
place," was the reply, accompanied with a shrug 
of the shoulders. The mere hugeness and in- 
tricacy of municipal life, as well as its excessive 
demands upon the person, seem to paralyze con- 
science. To weaken the sense of personal respon- 
sibility means to render a man morally useless. 

2. The exclusive way of living is a difficulty. 
This is incident to city life, and especially in the 
thickly populated districts. Here the people are 
packed together as closely as sardines — twenty, 
thirty, and often forty families live in one build- 
ing. Here they lire secluded like monks and 
hermits ; they live oblivious to one another. And 
perhaps it is best, under the conditions, that they 
should. Occasionally they come out of their 
hiding places, go away and return; but they are 



254 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

not neighbors. Their names are not always on 
their letter boxes, nor always in the city direc- 
tory. The heterogeneous elements in a com- 
munity and in the same building forbid acquaint- 
ance and sociability. People come and go, and 
no one except themselves knows whether they 
have been to the park, the theater, or to the house 
of God. The minister of the gospel does not 
know the people and very few know him. 

3. Strenuous living is another of the difficulties 
we meet in the city work. The average Negro 
comes North ostensibly to better his pecuniary 
conditions — in other words, to make more money. 
When he gets here he finds he has to make money 
to live. His expenses are such that, sick or well, 
he has to make money. This strenuous living 
distracts his mind, absorbs his attention, and 
secularizes his thoughts until ere long he suffers 
from spiritual atrophy. Engrossed incessantly 
by secularities, he neglects his spiritual duties, 
absents himself from the house of God, and is 
numbered among the transgressors. Physically 
and spiritually he suffers severely. Like a clock, 
which must be wound up periodically, he runs 
down, and the spiritual machinery stops. Poor 
man, he deserves the sympathy and pity of the 
Church. What can be done for him and his 
family? The whole family suffers for the want 
of paternal leadership. 



THE OUTLOOK 255 

4. The transient condition of many Negroes 
constitutes another difficulty in missionary en- 
deavor. The average workingman in the North 
moves about from place to place. He is nomad. 
Now he is on the west side, now on the south 
side, now on the north side, and next on the east 
side. You think he is located, churched, a fix- 
ture, when, behold, like the Arab, he pulls up his 
tent and silently steals away. Of course, this is 
not true of a great many. This constant chang- 
ing makes people undecided. They hardly be- 
come really interested when they are obliged to 
change locations. 

5. The many attractions in a city hinder church 
work. The ingenuity of the devil is another of 
his attributes. He is an ingenious inventor. The 
best and most seductive of his inventions are the 
various attractions that lead people into the ways 
of the world and away from God. These at- 
tractions are distractions. I need not enumerate 
them, for all are familiar with them. The 
unchurched are inveigled by these Satanic traps ; 
and it has become a problem what to do to rescue 
the thousands of victims that fall into these snares 
of worldly amusements, thought to be so innocent 
by the great majority of our city people. 

Now, as to the solution of the difficulties. Paul 
launched into the greatest missionary campaign 
of all time armed simply with the gospel, and his 



256 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

own tongue, saying, "How shall they believe ex- 
cept they hear." After all, as in every spiritual 
crisis, the Church owes no duty save that of 
getting a hearing for the gospel. Reducing 
things to their simplest terms, we may say that 
the Church must solve three general problems — 
ignorance, social condition, defective hearing of 
the gospel. 

i. Ignorance. The writer has been impressed 
with the appalling spiritual ignorance that is gen- 
eral in our large cities. Much as our Church 
is to be felicitated upon the class of people with 
whom she has to do, we can testify how, under 
disintegrating and sectarian influences, the sturdy 
intellectual and spiritual life of our people, de- 
rived from a historic faith and soundly evan- 
gelical, suffers demoralization. The conditions 
of city life authorize systematic attention to the 
whole question of a church culture, from the child 
to the mature member. With numbers the very 
permanence of the Christian life, the very salva- 
tion of the soul, depends upon careful training. 
Some more effective, steadfast, and comprehen- 
sive system ought to be evolved. 

2. Social Condition. Without entering at 
large into the question of the institutional church, 
nor noticing its exemplification as in the work of 
Drs. Greer and Rainsford in New York, nor in its 
partial proximation as tried in Chicago, we may 



THE OUTLOOK 257 

note that their plans seek the secularization of the 
church along three lines — relief, entertainment, 
and instruction. We note also that their purpose 
is to supply the element of personal touch and of 
natural social desire in such a way that the result 
may be to render a life, by the condition of city 
existence detached and submerged, attached and 
preoccupied with the things of the church, and so 
bring the kingdom of God into the hearts and 
lives of men. It may be that, as the Church took 
the secular basilica and made a temple, and 
Luther took secular song and made it an ally of 
the gospel, so in modern days the Church is to 
take other means of ministration and hallow 
them. 

3. Defective Hearing of the Gospel. This is a 
difficult problem. Numbers are forced to work 
on Sunday. This element alone eats the spiritual 
life out of our people. Numbers live secluded 
from all social contact with church circles. Pov- 
erty, to all intents, practically excludes multitudes 
through the mere idea of lacking clothes and the 
wherewithal to attend and support the church. 
Sin ravages home after home. Amusements 
blind and mislead men, darkening the consciences 
and cultivating the senses. These conditions 
should excite the daily and nightly concern of 
the Church. 

The whole Bible is a book of the city. From 



258 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the first town founded by Cain to the startling 
delineations of the book of Revelation, the sin 
and shame and judgment, on the one hand, and 
the splendor and glory and enduring, on the other, 
of the mighty metropolis are the successive 
themes of prophecy and wrath. Israel found the 
promised land a land of walled towns, high and 
strong. The trumpets of priesthood battered 
down the walls of Jericho. No earthly defense 
has ever yet withstood the power of the 
gospel: We honor the nation which in the hour 
of crisis will rally its people and its every re- 
source to the warfare that tries men's souls. Shall 
not the Methodist Episcopal Church be willing 
to yield her last treasure, to offer the last drop 
of blood, the last dollar of sacrifice, in that war- 
fare of God which the great Church wages against 
the forces that overthrow men? 

There are many problems which need the math- 
ematics of heaven for their solution, but none 
more than the one we have been studying. The 
Negro at the North wants warm words, warm 
smiles, warm welcomes, warm hearts, warm 
prayers, and the warm atmosphere of the brother- 
hood of man in the place where they teach the 
fatherhood of God. The Church cannot go care- 
lessly into the work if it would go victoriously. 
It was "Tarry ye" before "Go ye." It is the 
earthly mission of the Divine Spirit to furnish 



THE OUTLOOK 259 

plans and make them effective by the use of con- 
secrated hearts. 

On, great Methodist Episcopal Church ! lay thy 
left hand upon the altar and thy right hand upon 
the arm of God, and there will be no difficulties 
in the way of gospelizing the Negro at the North. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-SUPPORT 

BY THE REV. M. W. CLAIR, D.D., PH.D. 

The problem of self-support has as its direct 
object the well-being of the individual as well as 
of the collective whole. It worked out its own 
solution in the early Church through the super- 
abundance of revelation — a distinctive part of 
the earliest religious life. As soon as the Church 
was formed the discussion of benevolence and its 
practical illustration became an essential factor in 
its very life. The signal punishment of Ananias 
and Sapphira was due to the fact that they vio- 
lated the truth in swearing falsely as to the price 
received for their land. It was recognized that 
the very essence of benevolence was to be found 
not only in truth of lip but truth of heart. 

In the first letter to the Corinthians the apostle 
Paul encourages liberality, and even goes so far 
as to suggest the relief of the parent church — 



260 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

a most worthy enterprise, and one which has 
always appealed to the best feelings of the 
younger churches. There can be no benevolence 
among Christians without the awakening of a 
responsive chord in the heart of the recipients. 
This brings us to the consideration of its twofold 
effect — upon the receiver as well as the giver. 

"The quality of mercy is not strained, 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 
It is an attribute to God himself." 

The Church which constantly receives un- 
doubtedly feels in time like extending the favors 
to the reach of others less fortunate. No race, 
people, or nationality will consent for any length 
of time to be mere recipients. It is a divine 
law implanted in the heart of every normally 
constituted individual, as soon as he has come 
to the point where he recognizes the effect of 
early training, or even the most ordinary care, 
to preserve his existence from the moment when 
he can lay aside even the most loving restraint 
of parents or friends and enter upon man's estate, 
where he can take care of himself, and then in 
turn of those who in due course of nature or 
extraordinary circumstances become the objects 
of his care. 

As early as 1865 the Methodist Episcopal 



THE OUTLOOK 261 

Church, reaching out to the vast field of Home 
Missions then opening in the South, concluded 
to establish a nucleus in this territory from which 
it was hoped would emanate an ever-widening 
circle of pure influences that would affect the 
very heart of existing conditions of ignorance 
and €egradation. The result has more than justi- 
fied her expectations. Six Conferences, to which 
belong 735 ministers and 90,000 communicants, 
have grown out of that small beginning. Can 
it be doubted that such work is justified? 

These various churches, while not all self-sup- 
porting, have been gradually developing the es- 
sentials not only of maintenance but of that 
benevolence which is not content after being 
brought into the light until some one is brought 
to the knowledge of the imperishable truth. 

Self-support is the foundation of the future 
church. It develops a healthy condition and a 
most helpful state of affairs. In countries where 
the inhabitants subsist upon the products of na- 
ture, without any effort on their part save that of 
stretching forth the hand to receive them, there 
is a lack of the helpful spirit of independence 
such as is found among people thrown continu- 
ally upon their own resources. "Verily I say 
unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the king- 
dom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter 
therein." For responsible subjects of divine 



262 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

government this is the only way into this king- 
dom and family. 

The measure of light involving moral responsi- 
bility involves the obligation of implicit obedience 
to God and a sense of duty to maintain and cher- 
ish this divine institution. What would have be- 
come of America had the early colonists rflied 
solely upon England for support? The enter- 
prise was launched, its promoters depending upon 
their own resources and possibilities and buoyed 
up by the constant inhalation of that atmosphere 
which once breathed insists upon the bold ex- 
clamation, "Give me liberty or give me death." 
To-day as a result of such independence and self- 
reliance this republic measures strength with the 
great world powers. 

A careful study of the work of the colored 
Conferences will furnish additional evidence of 
the importance of self-support. In the bearing 
of a part at least of the obligations power has 
been developed, and to-day they are not bene- 
ficiaries only, but contributors to that fund that 
once helped them and is now extending the help- 
ing hand to others. 

In individuals, in small beginnings, are mar- 
velous possibilities. In their early stages they are 
embryonic. Little by little the majority is 
reached. It should be a pleasure to look back at 
the day of small things. Once the Christian 



THE OUTLOOK 263 

Church with their Lord and Master could enter 
a little ship and sail out on the Sea of Galilee. 
An army of five hundred million strong stands in 
defense of the principles for which the King of 
Glory died. The prophet saw a small stone cut 
out of the mountain without hand. It was des- 
tined to fill the whole earth. Methodism had a 
small and humble beginning. In that beginning 
yonder in Oxford University were the possibili- 
ties of the world-wide movement that it has come 
to be. The Methodist Episcopal Church knows no 
north, no south, no east, no west. In all lands, 
among all people, our banner is being set up. 
These found no help from the then existing in- 
stitutions. Facing oppositions, the Church has 
stood forth and fought her way to the front, 
which was all the better for her. 

The self-respecting man as well as the institu-. 
tion that is hopeful of a successful future hails 
with delight the opportunity of self-help. For 
every effort put forth there is a liberal reward. 
"The laborer is worthy of his hire." "Whatso- 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Not 
simply a return for the material outlay ; but there 
is an accumulation of strength that arms the sub- 
ject for more heroic endeavors. Strength and 
force of character are formed. In the race and 
battle of life this element stands for much. 



264 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

WHY WE SHOULD DO MORE FOR THE 
BENEVOLENCES 

BY THE REV. E. M. JONES, D.D. 

Coming at once to the heart of this subject, we 
answer : 

First : Because the spirit of the age demands it. 
This is an age of splendid public spirit. Never 
did our country possess and manifest such a gen- 
erous public spirit as now. We see its outcrop- 
pings every day along many lines. It speaks 
well for an age when thousands will sidetrack 
their own individual interests for the interest of 
all. To promote the welfare of mankind many 
are not only giving their means, but that which is 
far better, themselves. Humanity is having to- 
day the benefit of the best brains and the best 
lives among men. Millions are being given to- 
day for the uplift and the salvation of men. The 
cause of Christian missions is coming in for a 
full share of consideration. We too must catch 
the spirit of the age and make our contributions 
for the extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 
The three hundred thousand colored people in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church would be out of har- 
mony with the spirit of the age if they did not do 
more for the benevolence of the Church, know- 
ing that it is through this agency that God is 
being glorified and men reached and saved. 



THE OUTLOOK 265 

Second: The needs of the field demand it. 
The Church is in sad need of money. It is handi- 
capped for the want of it. We must to the full 
extent of our ability answer this call. It is a 
tremendous undertaking to preach the gospel to 
the whole heathen world in this generation, and 
yet if the Church of God only had the means it is 
not impossible. But the most practical way to 
save the heathen world is to save America with 
its millions of foreigners and non-Christian 
Americans. The salvation of America means the 
salvation of the world. America's redemption 
would be the stepping-stone to the world's re- 
demption. To this mighty task of bringing 
America to Jesus Christ the benevolent causes of 
our great Church are committed. We have the 
men — God-given men — to "go" and to "do" the 
work; let us help give the money. Let us take 
the benevolences upon our hearts and give our 
full share to the cause of the Church. 

Third: Another reason why we should do 
more for the benevolences is, we have been trained 
to give. For all these years the Church has been 
training its members, through its many agencies, 
in the habit and art of giving. Through the 
worthy secretaries and representatives of the vari- 
ous benevolences, the Advocates and tracts, we 
have been in training in liberality. It is now high 
time that the results of our training should be 



266 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

seen in our collections for these benevolences. 
We have been taught the importance of these 
benevolent causes, the object for which each 
stands, the good they are doing and can do if 
they only have the means. It will be a reflection 
on our training and intelligence if we do not give 
more in the future than in the past. 

Fourth: We are more able to give now than 
ever before. Not only have we been trained and 
know the importance of giving, but we have 
more of this world's goods than ever with which 
to make our contributions. The colored people 
have made great strides in accumulating wealth 
since emancipation. We have forty-six banks, 
ten thousand stores, two hundred thousand farms, 
forty thousand homes, and pay taxes on over six 
billion dollars' worth of property. Let us put in 
practice the motto of John Wesley, "Get all 
you can, save all you can, and give all you can." 

Fifth: It will greatly increase our collections 
for the benevolences if we observe each special 
day which the Church has set aside. Each of 
the great benevolences has a special day during 
the year which should be carefully observed and 
each cause put on its own merits, and the people 
should have a chance to give and should be urged 
to give liberally. Easter, Lincoln's Birthday, 
Children's Day, and the Sunday before Thanks- 
giving, Home Missions and Church Extension 



THE OUTLOOK 267 

Day, Sunday School Rally Day, etc., all should 
be made great occasions. This should be done 
both for its educational effects and for larger 
collections. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has been and 
is our friend. It has stood by us and helped us 
in many ways ; let us express our gratefulness and 
high sense of appreciation by standing gener- 
ously by its benevolences. 



DOES THE INVESTMENT PAY MADE 
BY THE CHURCH IN THE NEGRO 
RACE? 

BY THE EDITOR 

In this age of materialistic tendency and 
business exactness it is not at all surprising that 
some should ask the question, Does it pay to 
spend so much money trying to Christianize the 
Negro. If measured by the results, such a 
question can only be answered in the affirmative. 
Yes, it pays many times over. Christian educa- 
tion and the Christian religion are making the 
Negro an industrious and progressive citizen. 
Christian education and the Christian religion by 
uplifting and refining his ideals make him more 
and more ambitious, more self-respecting, and 



268 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

more self-confident. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church is helping to make better ministers, better 
physicians, better teachers, and stronger men and 
women in every walk of life among the Negroes. 
An examination of what the colored people 
have done in the last few years will prove that we 
are getting ahead and gradually coming to self- 
support. The responsibility confronting us is 
not simply to take care of the work already estab- 
lished, but to go out into the great harvest gath- 
ering in the people and helping them to build 
places of worship and to secure a Christian educa- 
tion. How can our people rise without Christian 
education and religion ? The money invested in 
our people has yielded much, and it has been one 
of the most fruitful investments made in mis- 
sionary effort and Christian education. This 
home missionary work of the Church compares 
most favorably with the work in foreign fields. 
The Negro is nearing the goal of self-support; 
and what could be of greater encouragement to 
the Church than that she has been responsible 
for the development of slaves from ignorance 
and superstition to a position of Christian influ- 
ence in the Church? Our leadership is able to 
compete with the leadership of the other 
Churches. In life and character our ministers as 
well as our people are among the best in any of 
the Churches. The Methodist Episcopal Church 



THE OUTLOOK 269 

is building wisely and permanently among our 
people. The next few years will be marked by 
a greater proportionate advance than ever. 



BISHOP QUAYLE AND HIS COLORED 
BRETHREN 

BY BISHOP WILLIAM A. QUAYLE 

Possibly there are some advantages in being 
an ignoramus. At least one, this one, hopes so. 
The ignoramus by his very immaturity of infor- 
mation brings two open eyes, two open ears, one 
open brain, and one open heart. His ignorance 
is his asset. He brings no preconceived theory. 
He is down around "to catch" a theory. 

A brand-new Bishop has everything to learn, 
and the job is big enough, as we all note; but he 
has yet nothing to unlearn, which ameliorates his 
task in part. 

I was a spy ; howbeit, not to spy out the naked- 
ness of the land, but to spy out the land. I bring 
back from this spying grapes of Eschol — at least 
to my brain and heart and democracy and Meth- 
odist hope they are grapes of Eschol. To be sure, 
I affect no wisdom. I am still an ignoramus ; but 
an ignoramus may set down what he has seen. 
His eyes and ears will work. His inferences 



270 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

may be defective; but his observations may be 
accurate. This article is not given as specially 
illuminative to the Church, but as setting down 
how one man, an ignoramus, was impressed as 
he presided at Conferences of his brother minis- 
ters whose skins were black and whose hearts 
were white. 

i. The two Conferences presided over were the 
West Texas and Texas. They include the black 
Methodist Episcopalians in Texas, a domain 
larger than Asia Minor. One was held in Vic- 
toria, near Port Levaca, on the Gulf of Mexico, 
the other at Paris, at the far north of Texas, near 
the Oklahoma line. In either Conference some 
preachers had journeyed five hundred miles to 
answer to their names and bring their reports. 

2. One cabinet had five members, the other 
six. One cabinet had every member as black as 
soot. They were deliciously black, answering to 
quaint old Andrew Fuller's definition, "The 
image of God cut in ebony. ,, This old ecclesi- 
astic's phrase is apt description of these men. 
They have the image of God. 

Of both the cabinets I may set down that no 
man could ask to be associated with a body of 
men of manlier mold. They did not bicker. 
They did not spat. They did not whimper. 
They were open in saying what they had to say. 
In no instance did a member of either cabinet 



THE OUTLOOK 271 

come to me when others were gone and wish to 
put a gloss on some other man's work or remarks 
or churches. They impressed me as manly and 
aboveboard, courteous and not cringing. I was 
further impressed with their sagacity in judging 
men, their fairness in estimating them, and their 
tenacity in holding for what they wanted and 
each man fighting for the best men for his dis- 
trict. To an ignoramus in the episcopacy this 
would appear to be a district superintendent's 
inseparable adjunct. This peculiarity argues 
sanity, sagacity, and honor. In no instance did 
I hear any one of them speak disparagingly of 
each other or of their fellow ministers. They 
estimated but did not practice detraction. They 
were not stubborn, but they were firm. 

3. Though the Home Missions appropriation 
was reduced from the level which at its highest 
was never high, I heard no preacher complain. 
These men, whose salaries at best are but a pit- 
tance, and to whom the sixteen per cent cut meant 
cut in its drastic sense — these men made no 
whimper. 

4. Apparently every evil that can happen had 
happened within the bounds of these two Con- 
ferences. Repeated overflows and drownings 
out, complete failures in crops, compelling an ex- 
odus, in some instances, of entire communities 
in search of work, repeated lynchings of innocent 



2J2 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

men which had terrorized other entire communi- 
ties (at a telephone pole in a certain city where I 
was standing and talking to a district superin- 
tendent, he said, in a voice whose weird pathos 
I seem not to forget, "From this pole not long 
ago one of my race was hung till dead, and for 
days his blood was red on the walk where we 
stand") — ague, yellow fever, boll weevils, catas- 
trophes which read like excerpts from the bulle- 
tins of the Egyptian plagues, had happened and 
were chronicled by one brave man of brawn, of 
body, brain, and faith; and after having set 
down a list of calamities which made the tears 
rise unbidden to my eyes and a sob choke my 
throat, he concluded his rehearsal by a sentence 
which, had it occurred in the book of Job, we 
would set down as sheer genius. His conclud- 
ing sentence of this inventory of disaster was, 
"Yet through all, God has been with us and has 
been good, and has given us his blessing." If, 
sitting and listening to hero-talk like this, I said 
in my heart, "Thank God I am related by broth- 
erhood in the ministry to such men as these," 
shall I be wondered at? Not once, but many 
times, a district superintendent would rehearse 
what had happened to a preacher and a charge — 
sickness, deluge, vanishing of members, slaughter 
of crops or of men of his race — and then soberly 
remark, "But he brings up a good report." 



THE OUTLOOK 273 

One man reported he had had a salary of 
seventy dollars, and concluding said, "Bishop, I 
want you to send me back." One man whose 
wife had been wearying away for all the year 
and at last had died, said, or sobbed, "I have had a 
broken heart, Bishop, but have kept at my work." 

Men, women, what think you of these brethren 
of yours, these brethren in black? I know no 
better than to wonder at them and love them, 
and record in my memory that men had been set 
down heroes for less herohood than this. 

5. Preachers by the score came up with salary 
receipts — a scrawny pittance — but they brought 
up a report, "All causes presented and many re- 
ceived in full"; and the benevolent collections 
ordered by the General Conference were in the 
West Texas Conference $5,372, in the Texas 
Conference $6,337. An ignoramus in the episco- 
pacy knows no better than to be put to shame by 
bravery in sacrifice and service like these. 

6. The courtesy of these brethren of ours 
toward a president of a Conference is something 
the equal of which I have not witnessed in the 
years of my attendance on Conferences as visitor 
and member. They could teach the rest of us 
sundry and divers rules of fine behavior. 

7. They were a band of well-dressed men. 
With few exceptions there was no slouchy man 
among them. They had come to Conference. 



274 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

They were tidy, clean, genial, engaging. I was 
proud to look at them and think they were Meth- 
odists. 

8. They were quick to "catch on." They do 
not need things labeled. No man need change 
the character of his utterances to suit a black 
audience. What he has to say they will under- 
stand if he will talk it out. No condescension is 
called for in being orator before these black 
Methodists. 

9. To me, an ignoramus investigator, the 
Methodist Church to these shut-out men and 
women seemed like a strong, welcoming, encour- 
aging hand reached out of the sky. These men 
felt and feel that out of sight, far off, across 
leagues of prairie and of stream and hill, is a 
Brotherhood in Christ which believes in them, 
prays for them, plans for them, sets up for the 
black men and women the same standards in 
morals, intelligence, and religion which the white 
Methodists have for themselves. To these men, 
with handicaps very many, shut in by dangers 
that may mean death any moment, the Methodist 
Episcopal Church appears as a door opening out- 
ward and a voice calling upward. 

Methodism cannot be hesitant in serving with 
and serving these servants of the living God. 



THE OUTLOOK 275 

THE MORNING COMETH 

BY THE REV. WARD PLATT, D.D. 

Despite all signs to the contrary, the outlook 
for the Negro race in America was never so 
bright as now. The coming of that race to its 
own is without blare of trumpets. Slowly, si- 
lently, patiently this host climbs the rugged steeps 
which lead to a place permanent and secure among 
all peoples. To sense this advance one may cite 
several significant facts: 

Public opinion is undergoing evolution con- 
cerning the status of the American Negro. The 
verdict from an increasing majority is that he 
shall occupy as large a place in life as he can 
fill. A fair show and a square deal is the de- 
mand of the general public. There are many 
apparent exceptions to this, but to anyone close 
to the pulse-beat of national sentiment this con- 
clusion is unmistakable. 

Without excusing any unjust public attitude, 
social, civic, or industrial, toward the Negro, yet 
all these tend to race solidarity, Just here may 
be God's fulcrum. Out of this may come the 
larger race compensation for past injustice. It 
is suggestive that the solidarity of ancient Israel 
insured racial integrity and destiny. 

Again, watch the race drift to Southern bot- 



276 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

torn lands. Contemplate this African farmer 
who now numbers one in eight of all who till the 
soil in the United States. Cotton more and more 
is king, and the African more and more will de- 
termine the output of cotton. What new em- 
phasis will underscore this fact when the Panama 
gateway bears the cotton and rice of the South 
to the Orient? As an agriculturist the African 
may become independent. He is taken from the 
labor market where competition makes discrim- 
ination. The equality of his products will alone 
determine their selling price, and their increased 
quantity will determine his power in the financial 
world. 

A few months ago in a Southern State we con- 
versed with a black brother layman of our 
Church. He is clearing from ten to twelve thou- 
sand dollars annually on his cotton crop. This 
is exceptional, but it points the way to possibili- 
ties. We suppose this man to be a future phi- 
lanthropist of his race. 

Industrially and commercially the African is 
well above the horizon. I was told in a growing 
town of the South that the one contractor there 
having practical monopoly of building operations 
is a Negro. A colored grocer there commanded 
white trade because of the excellent quality of his 
goods. Never in history has race or color 
counted for so little as now, provided the indi- 



THE OUTLOOK 277 

vidual or race can deliver achievements on a high 
level. 

While but about three of ten millions have 
reached the higher level of education and culture 
that prepares for success in an exacting age, yet 
the leaven is working. A visit to Southern black 
schools which are under the direction of wise in- 
structors will prove a revelation. 

Silently this work progresses. The alertness, 
the quick adaptation of students to better meth- 
ods of living, are an inspiration. Thousands of 
black people are planning and thinking for them- 
selves. The lack of cordiality with which their 
opinions have been accepted have tended to 
restrain their expression; yet this all the 
more may stimulate them to so think and speak 
as to ultimately command the ear of the 
nation. 

Improvement in home life is fundamental. 
Just here is where he notably wins. Walk about 
Southern towns and cities and mark the better 
houses — in some instances mansions — that are 
evolving from primitive conditions more preva- 
lent. And again take pains to come in contact 
with the cultured men and women of a high 
social order steadily advancing, and your own 
heart will beat as never before in rhythm with the 
throbbing life of an awakening race. Our na- 
tional unconsciousness of this change does not 



278 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

argue well for our observation and intelligence 
on so vital a subject. 

The American Negro's place in public and 
civic affairs is as sure as his advance and achieve- 
ment. As he wins the latter the other will fol- 
low. It is inevitable. One might as well try 
reversal of ocean tides as to think to prevent it. 
Give him a few years to make a background. 
He must make it. We inherit it. Patiently and 
with monumental self-restraint he is building 
foundations. Some day the superstructure will 
amaze us. That the foundations were so long in 
making will insure permanence. No man who 
invests wisely in that proposition will fail of geo- 
metrical increase. 

The Board of Home Missions and Church Ex- 
tension of our Church believes in our colored 
brethren. It invests more than $125,000 annu- 
ally in this foundation laying. It believes the 
future of the African in America so sure that it 
expects, in due time, to see the topstone placed 
with national rejoicing. Can we as a Board 
have a more liberal support from our colored 
Conferences that we may by God's blessing hasten 
that day? 



THE OUTLOOK 279 

THE RIGHT OF THE NEGRO TO BE 
RESPECTABLE AND RESPECTED 

FROM THE CENTRAL CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE 

It is a biting indictment of our day that there 
is a disposition to judge the white race by its best 
types and to lump the Negro off with its worse. 

When a white man is guilty of some gross 
crime we pay no attention to it at all, except as 
being the act of an individual degenerate. No 
one identifies him with decent people, or punishes 
him for his act. He wallows and surges alone at 
the bottom of the social abyss; there he is caught, 
punished, and forgotten. His crime does not 
stigmatize his race. 

But in the case with the Negro there is the dis- 
position to-day to brand the good with the bad. 
When a Negro or a group of them are degen- 
erates there is a disposition to despise the whole 
race as a race of degenerates. Like David, we 
say in our haste, "All (Negro) men are liars/' 
and unlike David we stick to the libel. We have 
judged the whole orchard by some rotten apples. 
It is unfair, it is untrue, it is unchristian, but is it 
not a fact ? 

And who can picture the wrongs this has done ; 
the unjust blows it has struck; the noble efforts 
it has despised ; the aspirations it has frozen ; the 
despair it has wrought, on those entitled instead 



280 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

to a brother's hand or a brother's word of ap- 
preciation ? 

This lumping Negroes generally off with the 
vicious among them is worse than making the 
innocent suffer with the guilty. We expect the 
innocent to do that. The pathway upward is 
ever up some Calvary. But the difficulty in this 
instance is that when the world persists in judg- 
ing the race by its lowest specimens, and acting 
accordingly, it renders the life and sufferings of 
the decent, the educated, the God-fearing, the 
high-minded men and women, who are living as 
pure and noble lives as mortals can live, of no 
avail, either as examples or individuals. 

There are multitudes of such men and women 
in this land, Christian gentlemen and women, 
scholars, philanthropists, entitled, when every- 
thing is taken into account, to a word of praise, 
whereas they get icy indifference and doubt. And 
there would be many more if there was a little 
more encouragement. For we know all too well 
that too often the gates of opportunity swing 
open on oiled hinges at the very approach of 
white youth, but are barred and bolted when it 
is a black hand that piteously knocks. And does 
not that take the heart out of a man? It ought 
to be different. It will be different if Christians 
stop to think. 

It would be a very wholesome thing if the 



THE OUTLOOK 281 

Christian press of the country would print more 
matter about those noble men of African descent 
who have lived the white life, who have been 
daily martyrs in the face of principle, who have 
struggled and won. Whenever it is necessary to 
report the story of some friend, why not call at- 
tention to the multiplied multitudes who live the 
simple life of honesty, sobriety, piety, and un- 
spectacular honor? It would be well if attention 
were often called to the philosophers who were 
slaves, ^Esop, Epictetus, and Euclid; to Negro 
statesmen like Toussaint L'Ouverture and Doug- 
lass; to writers like Alexandre Dumas and Dun- 
bar; to scholars like Scarborough and Du Bois; 
to ecclesiastics like Roberts and Burns and Abra- 
ham Grant; to leaders like Booker T. Washing- 
ton and Mrs. Mary Church Terrill (we purposely 
omit reference to living leaders, scholars, eccle- 
siastics in our own Church — since there are so 
many a limited mention would be invidious). 
We would then see how much reason there is for 
optimism; and we would go a long way in en- 
couraging these men and women who, in the face 
of much disparagement and even subtle persecu- 
tion, are living the noblest lives, and whose hearts 
must often have an icy chill almost of despair, 
just because they are bunched off with that scum 
which unfortunately disgraces every race, white, 
yellow, red, black. 



282 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

WHY SUCCESS HAS BEEN MEAGER IN 
SOME MISSION FIELDS 

BY THE EDITOR 

We have been very late beginning our work in 
various cities and towns. While we have been 
holding the fort in country places other denomi- 
nations were farsighted enough to observe the 
trend of the population of our people. They saw 
them leaving the country in great numbers, rush- 
ing to the cities and towns, North and South, and 
the representatives of these Methodist churches 
were on the ground to gather the people and 
organize them in their branches of the Methodist 
Church. So long as they were Methodists they 
were given a cordial welcome. 

Many of our people joined these churches. 
After a number of years had passed and the other 
churches had an opportunity to develop into 
strong bodies, we decided to enter the city or 
town and try to organize our church there. We 
waited until those who were formerly members 
of our church had contributed much in the main- 
tenance and development of these other churches 
and were among the leaders in the same and in 
the community, and their children had grown up 
in the church. Then we have gone there with 
the hope of getting back those who were once 



THE OUTLOOK 283 

connected with our church, a thing very unrea- 
sonable to expect. The people are not to blame 
for this, but rather it is the fault of the ministry 
that they are lost to our connection. 

Again, when we entered a city or town where 
the prospects were favorable for growth, we gen- 
erally located our church at some remote place, 
or where its environment hindered its develop- 
ment. Or, if we had a valuable location, we 
have sold it for a mere pittance, and bought 
somewhere out of the reach of the people. We 
have located out of town, while other churches 
have located in town. The children of our mem- 
bers, after they had grown up, were attracted to 
these churches, leaving us a few old members to 
represent the present and future of our church 
in that community. And year after year we 
have sent a preacher there, giving him missionary 
money when there was not the remotest sign of 
growth, and because of the situation of our 
church property we could not get one third its 
cost if we decided to sell it. In many instances, 
too, we have sent an incompetent man in the city 
or town to establish or build up our church, one 
who was unable to make a* favorable impression, 
thereby unable to demonstrate his ability to com- 
pete with the ministers of the other churches, 
and as a result we have wasted much money, and 
little, if anything, has been accomplished. Some- 



284 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

times we have been the first church in the com- 
munity, and because of the poor location selected, 
or not changing our location when the progress 
of the town demanded, we have allowed other 
churches to come in afterward, who made a wise 
selection in their site and in a few years they 
have outstripped us and are now the leading 
churches. 

Furthermore, we did not possess enough of the 
missionary spirit to be alert to our opportunities, 
and enthusiastic toward the spread of our church 
in accordance with the spread of population. We 
have been too well contented to hold what we 
already have. 

We have not heard as we should the "forward 
march of our glorious Methodism." We have 
not followed up as we should those of our people 
who have gone to live in growing cities and towns. 
We must not wait until others possess the land 
and secure the best locations for church property. 
But we should be wide-awake and among the 
first to spy out the land and put down our stakes 
where our Church shall be among the mightiest 
influences for the spread of the kingdom of 
Christ and the uplift of our people. 

Our fathers did not seem to realize this ; but we 
feel that the ministry of to-day has become 
awakened to the importance of these facts, and 
are therefore more than ever before alert for op- 



THE OUTLOOK 285 

portunities to spread our Church in growing cities 
and towns ; and if they have more money for this 
purpose we shall in the near future see results 
which will gratify us and justify any increased 
appropriation which the Church may make. 



SUCCESS IN SPITE OF OPPOSITION 

BY THE EDITOR 

While the colored work is not self-supporting, 
and under the circumstances can hardly be ex- 
pected to be, yet it is gratifying to note that in 
every department there has been a commendable 
increase during the last few years. 

Our colored membership meets with no little 
opposition and misrepresentation by the distinc- 
tively colored Methodist bodies. Our Church 
has never educated us to stoop so low as to try 
to increase our membership by proselyting mem- 
bers from other Churches. We have the convic- 
tion that to build up our Church in that way 
would be building upon a sandy foundation. 

We believe that in general our Church com- 
mends our course of action. Much is said and 
done, however, to try to make our ministers and 
members dissatisfied with the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church; still, on the whole, they remain 



286 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

loyal and are fearlessly going forward, represent- 
ing a high standard of Christian life, trying to 
reach those masses who have no church relations. 

Not a few may be found who say, where they 
believe that it will have effect, that the Methodist 
Episcopal Church is a slave Church. Well, if 
we are called slaves because we remain in the 
Church that sent more soldiers to the battlefield 
and more nurses to the hospital during the Civil 
War than any other Church, the Church that is 
supporting forty institutions for the benefit of our 
people, the Church that has given more than 
twenty million dollars to help to elevate us to 
Christian citizenship, the Church that has given 
the colored man more recognition than any other 
Church composed of white and colored people T 
the Church that has stood for the brotherhood of 
mankind including the colored man — if these 
things represent bondage it is a pity that more 
of the ten million of our people are not in the 
same bondage. 

We could not hope to be more than a child 
race in the few years of opportunity since our 
emancipation. The people will not be hood- 
winked much longer by men who try to keep 
them down for selfish purposes. 

From a comparison of the men and the work 
of our denomination with the work and men of 
other denominations, there always results a higher 



THE OUTLOOK 287 

appreciation of what our Church is doing toward 
the elevation of the colored people; and the signs 
point to a rapid spread in the future of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church among them. 



EVANGELIZING FORCES AMONG OUR 
YOUNG PEOPLE 

BY I. GARLAND PENN, A.M., LITT.D. 

There was never in all the history of the 
world such a clear vision of the fulfillment of the 
prophecy, "Thy Kingdom come," as is ours to- 
day. The Church of God has at last awakened 
to the common-sense method of evangelizing 
boys and girls; and why not, when the boys 
and girls perpetuate the existence of families, 
races, and nations and these make of our world 
such as are to be saved? One thing will surely 
usher in the dawn of a saved and redeemed 
world, namely, trained and consecrated workers 
who shall look for and find their greatest field of 
activity among youth. 

The "Suffer little children to come unto me," 
the declaration that "None of these little ones 
shall perish," as well as "Go sell what thou hast 
and follow me," are constant reminders to the 
Church of Christ that his method is not to leave 



288 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

out the youth. With the coming of the United 
Society of Christian Endeavor with its millions 
of members, the Epworth League with its mil- 
lions, the Baptist Young People's Union with its 
thousands, the Y. M. C. A. with its thousands of 
members, the Y. W. C. A. with its thousands, 
and all like organizations for the conversion, 
training, and saving of the youth, we have more 
hope that in the twentieth century redeemed hu- 
manity will be able to sing, 'The year of jubilee 
has come." The Negro people, whom Christ also 
took into account when he bore the agony of Cal- 
vary, are getting their eyes open too, and this is 
the common-sense, Christlike method of evangeli- 
zation. Ten years ago the Epworth Leagues, 
Y. M. C. A.'s, Y. W. C. A.'s, the Christian En- 
deavors, and the Baptist Young People's Unions 
could be counted on one's fingers, but, "Watch- 
man, what of the night" now? The watchman 
of progress will see in every church officials 
whose one interest it is to organize our young 
people into these young people's Christian so- 
cieties, not for less social and intellectual culture, 
but for more of it of a better character, and all 
backed by love for Christ and the purpose to use 
all life to his glory. Four thousand chapters of 
young people's Christian societies, to say nothing 
of the Sunday schools, with approximately a 
membership of three hundred thousand, argue a 



THE OUTLOOK 289 

better day in the new century for the Negro ; and 
here is one hopeful sign that very soon our pace 
for development will be quickened when fully 
the work of training these thousands has been 
accomplished and their eyes thoroughly opened. 
To see the work to be done and to consider 
the indifference and apathy where there ought 
to be consecration and energy is quite enough 
to chill the wamest heart; yet the forces now 
at work for the salvation of our young peo- 
ple must not relax their efforts a moment, but, on 
the contrary, enter wherever the door opens, and 
press the door for entrance which is not open; 
for in the race of life there must be some goal 
for even a part who are faithful. No set of peo- 
ple ever had so large and so formidable a piece 
of work as the young Negro has, to bring his 
people where they should be. His work is to be 
himself and to do in making the boy or girl what 
he is trying to be, yea, more. The young people's 
societies among us as a race are a field for opera- 
tion. Into it let us pray that the young people 
of our race may enter, and, entering, may labor 
to one day hear the "Well done" here and here- 
after. 



290 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

THE COLORED MEMBERSHIP AGAINST 
THE SALOON 

BY R. S. LOVINGGOOD, A.M., PH.D. 

The liquor traffic is without doubt the most 
destructive enemy of the human race. It incites 
to murder, helps to fill the insane asylums, makes 
orphans of our children, feeds our penitentiaries, 
inspires the brothel, is the partner of the gambling 
den, is the cause of the downfall of many of our 
boys, allures many of our noblest girls to ever- 
lasting shame, crowds the recorders' courts every 
Monday morning, robs our people of their homes 
and of their character, and deadens the conscience 
so that the preaching of the gospel is of no avail. 

The character of the saloon is such that it is 
regarded unfit for women and girls to visit. No 
place should be tolerated among our men where 
our sisters, daughters, wives cannot go. The 
saloon is so bad that it must be closed on Election 
Day, so that we may have a decent election. The 
saloon is the worst enemy of education, the worst 
enemy of peace in the home, the worst enemy of 
God ; it is the curse of curses. The saloon is per 
se an outlaw. Unlike the grocery store or the dry 
goods store, the saloon has no legal standing in 
the community or business world. Society, the 
courts, and States must ultimately come to the 




Group io 

Emmett J. Scott, A.M. William L. Bulkley, Ph.D. 

H. Roger Williams, M.D. L. J. Price, A.M. 



THE OUTLOOK 291 

position of Judges Artman and Christian, of 
Indiana, in their recent decisions. Says Judge 
Artman: "When measured by the common law, 
the saloon business is unlawful, and therefore 
without legal existence. In the absence of a 
statute legalizing the business, common-law pro- 
hibition prevails." And further, "The State can- 
not, for a license fee, give the saloon a legal stand- 
ing." Judge Christian quotes a long list of opin- 
ions showing that the liquor business is inherently 
bad, and declares : "From these cases, and from 
numerous other decisions, I am drawn to the 
inevitable conclusion that the business of selling 
intoxicating liquors at retail to be drunk on the 
premises where sold is dangerous to the public 
morals, the public health, and therefore the place 
where such business is conducted is a nuisance 
and needs no proof as to its injurious effects upon 
the public." And he states in addition that 
"there is no common-law right to engage in the 
business of selling intoxicating liquors at retail, 
and without a license law prohibition would exist 
in Indiana." 

The saloon is against the material and financial 
welfare of the people. We are poor people. We 
need our small salaries for the purchase of homes 
and to care for our families. The saloon helps 
no one except the policeman who makes the ar- 
rests, the lawyer who tries the case, and the 



2Q2 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

saloonist who sells the liquor. The manufac- 
turers of Milwaukee, Saint Louis, and other 
places get most of the money. The saloonists 
get a small per cent, while the drinkers get — 
poverty, broils, sorrows, pains, death, and final 
damnation. The saloonist simply rakes in what 
our laborers produce, takes his percentage, and 
sends the remainder to the liquor trust. 

The saloon is against the cause of education. 
Many a child is growing up in ignorance because 
its father spends his earnings in the saloon. It 
is against good morals, and is the companion 
of all dark and evil deeds. The saloon never 
elevates, but degrades all who are under its 
influence. 

The saloon is also against the cause of Chris- 
tianity. Since Christian people cannot ask God's 
blessing upon the saloon nor pray that it may 
prosper, it behooves all followers of Jesus Christ 
to take a bold stand against this great enemy. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church is on record 
as an uncompromising foe of the saloon. You 
never need to wonder where the colored members 
stand when the subject of temperance or intem- 
perance is before the people. It can easily be 
seen that the saloon is the direct source of most 
of the crimes committed by our race. It is the 
headquarters for our vagrants, idlers, and loafers, 
whose loud and boisterous conduct so often 



THE OUTLOOK 293 

causes every Negro to hang his head in shame. 
Wherever the saloon is driven out you can see 
our people rising rapidly and becoming a part of 
the community representing good citizenship. 



WHY IMPROVE THE PARSONAGE? 

FROM THE SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE 

The parsonage, in spite of us, becomes the 
model home of the community. It is more fre- 
quently visited than most homes are generally, 
and from the parsonage the housekeepers of the 
community not only get the impression of the 
ability of the preacher's wife to make a home, 
but get their ideal of home-making. Because 
it is largely the temporary abode of the pastor and 
his wife, a sort of an inherited indifference ex- 
ists as to the appearance of the parsonage within 
and without. And then, too, the trustees and par- 
sonage committee force themselves to the conclu- 
sion that since it is the temporary abode of the 
pastor and his wife it does not need the finishing 
touches that they desire for their own homes. As 
a matter of fact, it is the only home that most 
preachers and their families have, and they de- 
serve the comfort as well as the attraction of the 
home life; and to this end not only should the 



294 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

pastor and his wife, but the trustees and parson- 
age committee, lend hearty cooperation. 

But more, the parsonage represents the com- 
munity life as no other single home does. It 
represents the combined industry, home ideals, 
and aesthetic tastes of the community. Sure 
enough, the general home life of the entire com- 
munity is to be judged by the amount of interest 
taken in the parsonage. For the parsonage is 
the community's property, supported by the com- 
munity's beneficence. The pastor and his fam- 
ily are there because of the community's invita- 
tion; and the parsonage becomes the place of 
entertainment of a number of guests because it is 
the community's property and the combined 
home of the community. 

Therefore, there ought to be a special and pe- 
culiar pride on the part of our membership 
throughout our territory which would lead to the 
beautifying of the parsonages, making them at- 
tractive and comfortable for the pastors and their 
wives; and more, to make them represent more 
nearly home ideals of the community life. Let 
the trustee board and the parsonage committee 
take special interest in this matter, and see what 
can be done for the improvement of our parson- 
age property. 



THE OUTLOOK 295 
LEADERS FOR THE NEGRO RACE 

BY THE REV. W. P. THIRKIELD, D.D., LL.D. 

If the Negro race is to come to real freedom 
and true spiritual power and progress; if it is 
ever to find its place in the kingdom which is not 
mere meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, 
and joy, in holiness of spirit, there must be a 
body of elect men and women trained to large 
knowledge, broad vision, and lofty spiritual pur- 
pose, who, as teachers and moral leaders, shall 
lift the standard and lead their people out into 
the larger life. The upward pull through 
trained leadership ; the character-begetting power 
of strong personalities; the inspiration of higher 
ideals, to self-mastery, to efficient service through 
genuine race leadership, must be recognized. 
Without such teachers, helpers, leaders, the com- 
mon school, and even the industrial school, must 
fall and the race sinks to lower levels. The 
stream cannot rise above its fountain. 

The Negro is a fixture in our democracy. The 
four millions of yesterday will be twenty mil- 
lions in the near to-morrow. The startling word 
of Kidd in his Social Evolution is significant, 
that 999 parts out of the thousand of every 
man's produce is the result of social inheritance 
and environment. The Negro is set for the 
rising or falling of American civilization. He 



296 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

is to furnish the strong hands that must largely 
do the work in our semitropical South, with 
imperial resources yet undeveloped. 

I have stood with bared head in the splendid 
memorial hall at Harvard University, and in 
reverent spirit read on marble entablature the 
names of the sons of Harvard who, at the call 
of the nation, counted not their lives dear unto 
them, but went forth to death that the Union 
might be saved and an enslaved race freed. There 
hangs the portrait of Robert Gould Shaw, con- 
summate flower of New England's chivalry, and 
fruit of her finest culture. Saint Gaudens has 
enshrined in bronze the deathless deed of this 
incarnation of heroic manhood, who, scorning 
ease and the delights of culture in the hour of 
need, took command of a black regiment. So 
bravely did he lead those scions of a lowly race 
that he brought to birth and expression the man- 
hood and courage latent in them, until the whole 
North, with eyes fixed on the charge at Fort 
Wagner, could but exclaim, "The colored troops 
fought nobly!" Bob Shaw, son of Harvard, 
with sword in his brave right hand, died in battle, 
and with black heroes was buried for freedom's 
sake. 

"Right in the van on the red rampart's slippery swell, 
With hearts that beat a charge, he fell 
Forward as fits a man ; 



THE OUTLOOK 297 

But the high soul burns on to light men's feet 
Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet." 

Go forth to sacrifice and service in peace, no less 
glorious than in war, with torch of truth in the 
right hand, the knowledge and light of which shall 
banish darkness and make a people free indeed. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS TOWARD 
MATERIAL PROGRESS 

BY THE REV. C. A. TINDLEY, D.D. 

I am optimistic as touching the conditions and 
prospects of our race in this country. I rise to 
this height of faith because I "look not at the 
things that are present, but the things that are 
to come. ,, Nor am I unmindful of the present 
situations of segregations, ostracisms, and dis- 
franchisements. These dark clouds and awful 
barriers which seem to stop our way argue 
against all meaning of freedom and the instincts 
of liberty within us. In a certain sense it is all 
too true; but to my mind they have another and 
less inimical meaning. They are the means by 
which all races have had their transitions from a 
lower to a higher civilization. Like water, races 
must be made better by filtration; like gold, they 
must be tried in the fire. 



298 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

I am not real sure that the unity necessary to 
make a race strong could be had among us with- 
out something to drive us together. We have a 
sort of pride that sends us on the hunt for shin- 
ing spots, no matter what the cost or consequence. 
The present social conditions are driving us to- 
gether, and together we are going to stand. I 
do not like the idea of classing all our people, 
good and bad, together; but, suppose it was not 
done by the white people? Is it not apparent 
from what you have seen that three fourths of 
the race would be entirely left by the one fourth 
who call themselves the "four hundred"? The 
old barbarous law, "the survival of the fittest/' is 
only repealed when people are in possession of a 
Christian education. Every race has its strong 
engine-like classes that furnish power for the 
helpless trains behind. Uncouple these strong 
classes from the helpless masses and you will 
have flying engines but motionless trains. Forty- 
odd years have given us our engine classes, which 
are composed of preachers, teachers, lawyers, 
doctors, business men, and a few capitalists. 
These would constitute a power strong enough 
to move our whole race, but some force is re- 
quired, which I would liken to the railroad man's 
sign to "back up," to bring our strong classes 
close enough to move the weaker ones. 

It is not persons, but possessions, the world 



THE OUTLOOK 299 

honors to-day. If I should lift Dr. Booker T. 
Washington out of the great Tuskegee Institute 
and from his well-earned fame as a race leader 
and educator, and put the poorest man in this city 
in his place, I should in the same minute transfer 
all the honors of Washington to the poor 
man and the poor man's poverty to Wash- 
ington. If you can secure for yourself 
goodness, wisdom, and wealth you are sure 
of respect and honor. Pity is given, but 
friendship is bought with a price. People pity 
you when you are down and helpless. They be- 
come your friends when you can meet them upon 
some basis of mutual exchange. If you have 
nothing that anybody wants there will be no 
cause for anybody to come to you. You will 
have to go to them, and that at your expense. 

I happened to be, some time ago, in the neigh- 
borhood of the Zoological Garden in West Phila- 
delphia. Just ahead of me I saw a man turn in 
my street with a record-breaking speed. He had 
his hat in his hand, and from the look in his eyes 
he had some very serious reasons for his actions. 
I, becoming a little anxious, paused to make in- 
quiry as well as a casual examination. One 
word as the fleeing man dashed by me was 
enough. He said, "A wild cat is out." We 
changed no more words, and I do not think I 
said a word to anyone until I had removed that 



300 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Zoological Garden, wild cat and all, about a half- 
mile from where I met the fleeing man. Now, 
that wild cat was out — a sort of freedom, to be 
sure, but the kind that endangers the freedom of 
everyone else. Some of our race, like that wild 
cat, are out. They are not free from conditions 
that make them dangerous to others. If shot 
and shell broke chains of slavery from hands and 
feet in the '60's, education, moral goodness, and 
wealth must be relied upon to break the chains 
of ignorance, vice, and poverty, which threefold 
slavery holds a large portion of mankind, white 
and colored, the world over. 

Let us decide that this preparation to enter 
every sphere and department of American civili- 
zation shall be a better personal appearance. It 
was forty years after Israel left Egypt* before 
Canaan could be reached because of unreadiness. 
It has been about forty-five years since our race 
left physical slavery and gathered at this Jordan 
swollen with questions, doubts, and arguments, 
pro and con, respecting the fitness and ability of 
the race. Our race is not necessarily ugly. Any- 
body and anything will be ugly if it is not cared 
for. Good thoughts in the brain and good prin- 
ciples in the soul, together with a clean body, clean 
teeth, well-combed hair, and clothes on in good 
shape, will put a touch of real beauty on the 
blackest man or woman in the world. I saw a 



THE OUTLOOK 301 

colored man and a white man working side by 
side in the same cornfield. When Saturday noon 
came the white man went to the house, shaved 
and dressed, and went to the little country town 
to pay off his hands. The colored man went to 
the house, ate his dinner, and went to the same 
little country town to get his pay. He did not 
shave or change his clothes, but went to town 
just as he worked in the field. He was sitting on 
a box eating cheese and cakes when this white 
man came out of the little hotel to pay him his 
week's wages. He looked like a ragpicker, while 
the white man looked like a lord. On the follow- 
ing Sunday I happened to be at church where this 
colored farm hand attended. When he came into 
the church I would not have know r n him but for 
the fact that I had marked him on the Saturday 
before and had some knowledge of him. He was 
dressed like a dancing master. His collar was 
up to his ears, his shoes were sharp-toed and 
shining, his trousers were creased and costly and 
in the latest style. He was all right on Sunday, 
but nobody saw him save his own folks. The 
people who talk about the shortcomings of the 
race and their shiftless habits saw him on Satur- 
day. They never see him on Sunday, and there- 
fore never see him in any way but ragged and 
dirty. They say, "All coons look alike." We 
advise our workingmen to make as much prepara- 



302 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

tion to receive their wages as the man does who 
is going to pay them. Their labor is just as 
honorable as his money. No man has a right to 
consider himself a tramp just because he has to 
work. 

We advise our girls to keep off the streets in 
these country towns, and our larger cities, too, 
for that matter, unless they have business in the 
way of shopping. When they must go for shop- 
ping purposes we advise that they go with as 
much care of their personal appearance as when 
they are going to church on Sunday. Remem- 
ber ten millions of our race are graced or dis- 
graced according to the conduct of a single in- 
dividual. If a white person goes down, accord- 
ing to the popular estimation, there is only one 
person down; if a colored person goes down, ac- 
cording to the same popular estimation, the whole 
colored race is down. In a peculiar sense, we are 
our brother's keeper. 

We all deeply regret the Jim Crow situation in 
the South and some other places. Since it is so, 
let us try to make our department in the cars and 
steamboats and everywhere as orderly and good, 
so far as we are concerned, as any coach or part 
of the train or boat. Do not go for a ride in the 
cars or anything else where others are to be 
without making yourself just as agreeable as pos- 
sible. A dirty, unwashed man or woman, black 



THE OUTLOOK 303 

or white, is not fit to sit with for twenty or thirty 
miles on the train or anywhere. Let us prepare 
to live among the peoples of our clime and age. 
Our trouble is not in Africa, but right here in 
America. While the great missionary societies 
are saving people over there, let us seek to save 
our heathen at home. 

We call special attention to the home life of our 
people, both in cities and in the country. A 
dirty home with quarreling wife or husband is as 
bad as a jail house. No children will stay there 
any longer than they have to ; no children will be 
fit for any other place when they go. A log hut 
can be made a real palace, if palace conditions are 
there. We offer a program for "evening at 
home" in the country as well as in the city. It is 
as follows : When the evening meal is over, let 
all the children, with clean hands and faces, gather 
about the table with mother and father. Let 
some one who can read well, or better than others, 
read the newspaper, picking out the happenings 
in the home county and State first of all, then the 
best things about the nation at large. After this, 
let the father or mother tell some stories, of per- 
sonal experience or otherwise, that would seem 
nearest related to what has been read. Then let 
a Bible lesson be read, and prayer. This would 
end the program, which, I suppose, would con- 
sume nearly or quite one hour. A home thus 



304 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

brightened after a hard day's work will do much 
toward bringing the needed rest as well as 
spreading a halo of happiness over the family 
which would seem impossible for people in hum- 
ble circumstances. Children thus entertained 
will hardly want to go out many nights in the 
week. 

Our work also refers to the sanitary condition 
of the bedrooms and other rooms in the house. 
Perhaps no feature of the plan will better com- 
mend itself to the public than that of the indus- 
trial idea. There are many places in Maryland, 
Delaware, and elsewhere where our colored peo- 
ple could and do furnish enough work to keep 
many of these trades going at splendid profit to 
themselves and the workmen. There is enough 
trade and money within the ten millions of our 
people in this country, if properly used, to pile 
up such material and educational defense against 
all to the contrary, that, like the Jew, we shall, in 
the next twenty-five years, be accepted by all 
America, not because we are black, but because 
of what we represent and own. 

True value is not color of skin, 
Nor in the name of boasted kin; 
It must be this and only this — 
The thing that holds another's bliss. 






THE OUTLOOK 305 

ILLITERATE AND SHIFTLESS NEGROES 
—THE CAUSE AND REMEDY 

BY MRS. EMMA J. TRUXTON 

There is no question which appeals more to 
the better thinking class of our people than this. 
It is the question which appeals to us as we pass 
along the highway in all our large cities and small 
towns. When we see the girls and boys standing 
on the corners untidy in their appearance, their 
faces and language bespeaking the vicious lives 
which they lead, and showing all signs of dissi- 
pation and debauchery, and thus destroying their 
bodies, which should be God's temples, and filling 
them with dread diseases; the boys, too shiftless 
to work, playing games of chance that they may 
secure money by any kind of foul means rather 
than work for their daily bread, and others who 
hang around the barroom and allow themselves 
to be cared for by hard-working women — as we 
look upon this situation from every point of the 
hundreds of typical illustrations that confront 
us day by day, it is appalling. We need a cure 
for this terrible evil which is lowering our posi- 
tion in life as a race, and blocking the golden 
pathway of opportunity leading to higher and 
greater achievements; which is ignoring the 
blessed mandates of Holy Writ, turning a deaf 



306 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

ear to the call of Christ which comes through the 
pulpit, and every instrument and agency which 
acts as an uplift to humanity, disregarding all 
the laws of morality and decency, allowing their 
passions to become beastly and thus partake of 
all manner of intemperance until their brains be- 
come mere workshops for Satan. Thus, as the 
worst of criminals, they fill the pauper asylums 
and penal institutions of the country; and then to 
think of this class fostering a generation who 
will come into the world equally, if not more, 
polluted with shiftless and criminal tendencies. 

This may indeed be a very strong word-picture, 
but nevertheless it is true as we see it, and we are 
forced to trace the entire cause back to the home 
and its influences. We will find that as a race we 
are divided into three classes as regards mother 
and home: First, the home which is filled with 
the atmosphere of Christianity, strong morality, 
broad intellectuality, deep innate culture and re- 
finement, and sufficient income to provide all the 
conditions necessary to carry on life as regards 
the best way of living, and the mother in that 
home endowed with all of the qualifications nec- 
essary to make her position and work of molding 
and shaping character effective in every way. 
Second is the middle home, where the conditions 
are different. In this home the mother is oft- 
times compelled to be away to assist in earning 



THE OUTLOOK 307 

the daily bread. The home is left in charge of 
the children, who are often not competent to even 
prepare the proper food, and thus these children 
drift into the streets, where they see and learn 
all the vices of the world. The girls have the 
company of bad boys in the home without the 
knowledge of their hard-working parents. The 
mothers, many of them, are not acquainted with 
the best methods of training child life. There is 
a necessity of mother knowing each individual 
child, that she may mold and shape its character 
in accordance with its individual temperament; 
for the bad boy and good are the children of one 
mother and grow up in the same home together, 
but must be trained as individuals, and those 
mothers of this class who do know the right 
way come home often too tired to even think of 
anything outside of preparing them the daily sus- 
tenance of life. Then we have the third class 
of the homes and mothers who live in the most 
wretched squalor, intemperance, immorality, ig- 
norance, disease, and every form of vice, and 
from this class go forth into the world the most 
illiterate and shiftless of the race. It is the last 
two classes which call for the spiritual and intel- 
lectual, humane and moral work of the first class 
mentioned. 

We to-day, as the representatives of the su- 
perior class of our race, who have accepted all the 



308 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

opportunities of life, Christian education, culture 
and refinement, and every phase of good breed- 
ing which has made us the men and women who 
are wanted to-day, must step down and lift up the 
illiterate and shiftless part of our race and help 
them to make themselves and their children the 
men and women who are needed to-day and to- 
morrow, who will foster generations yet unborn, 
and thus prove to the world that the education of 
a child begins a hundred years before it is born. 
To systematize the work of remedying this 
evil we must first begin with the pastor in the 
pulpit, who gets the opportunity to reach the 
masses and by special sermons to them can reach 
the second class of parents and homes who often 
deceive us by their appearances. They can also 
assist the laity in organizing and carrying on 
regular scheduled "mothers' meetings," thus 
helping the mother who needs instructions as to 
perfect education in the home — the sanctified and 
glorious honor which comes to wives in the fos- 
tering and rearing of children; the awful sin and 
consequences which follow those who attempt to 
crush the law of nature in disobedience to the 
will of God; how to make the atmosphere of the 
home life create perfect modesty and virtue in the 
children. And there are those of the slums 
whom we cannot reach in this way ; we must go 
to them, and reach them in their own homes with 



THE OUTLOOK 309 

heart-to-heart talks, helpful advice, and keep it 
up until we win them individually to the right 
way of thinking, living, and doing. 

We should also organize men's meetings where 
we could reach the married and single men and 
tell them of the great responsibility resting upon 
them as husbands, fathers, and brothers; how 
they need to breathe into their lives purity; as 
brothers, that they must treat all mens sisters as 
they would have other men treat theirs; that it 
be a part of their being to protect women and 
children; that they begin the preparation of a 
home before they ask a woman's hand in mar- 
riage, that the wife and mother may be able to 
remain in the home looking after the training of 
the children which they foster. As husband and 
father, instruction can be given along the line of 
preparation of the spiritual, intellectual, physical, 
moral, and financial conditions; that the germ of 
Christian education has the power of taking the 
most distorted human being and transforming 
him into a creature whose every lineament of face 
and character will be a revelation of spiritual and 
intellectual magnificence. It dispels the dark and 
clouded recesses of the brain until every nook is 
filled with glorious light, which has the power to 
transform every part of material man until he is 
made a perfect whole. 

We as a race owe this particular part of our 



310 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

advancement to the great Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of which we feel honored to be a part, 
and which has been giving thousands of dollars 
and years of sacrifice and labor for the Christian 
education of the Negro, that we might be lifted 
from our lowly position of illiteracy and given 
the opportunity to stand upon the platform with 
those in this great Church who have always rec- 
ognized the brotherhood of man, without regard 
to race, creed, or color. 



THE COLORED MEMBERS AND DIS- 
TINCTIVELY COLORED DENOMI- 
NATIONS 

BY THE EDITOR 

We wrote to the officials of the distinctively 
colored Methodist bodies, and also to the colored 
Baptists, hoping thereby to secure information 
respecting the amounts raised by these denomi- 
nations for Missions, Church Extension, and 
Education during the last four years. Unfortu- 
nately, we have been unable to get exhaustive in- 
formation. We had hoped to furnish a compari- 
son according to proportional membership of 
these Churches and the colored membership of 
our Church in their respective offerings for Mis- 



THE OUTLOOK 311 

sions, Church Extension, and Education. It 
would then be plainly seen whether our people in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church were doing as 
much toward self-support as those in distinctively 
colored bodies. But basing our comparison upon 
the data at hand we may justly claim to have 
contributed more money than any one of the dis- 
tinctively colored denominations. Our advance- 
ment will be better appreciated when we consider 
the depth from which we have come and the oppo- 
sition which we had to meet from the efforts of 
the distinctively colored bodies to proselyte our 
members. There have been some spasmodic 
efforts made by some Churches with good results, 
but our offerings have been regular and syste- 
matic. On the whole, we of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church believe that we are showing encour- 
aging signs toward self-support. 

The amount annually appropriated to the col- 
ored work, with its seven millions of human souls 
out of the kingdom of Christ, is considerably 
smaller than we feel this missionary field war- 
rants. We have known several instances where 
colored members of our Church have given their 
last penny for the cause of Christ and have 
trusted our heavenly Father for bread the next 
day. We have known them to cut down their 
necessary living to help spread the kingdom of 
Christ. In fact, we often wonder how the people 



312 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

can do so much for the various interests of the 
Church out of their poverty; yet for the Mas- 
ter's sake they can make even greater sacrifices, 
and so we are urging our people as never before 
to make a heroic effort toward self-support. In 
our humble judgment, we are advancing in that 
direction and deserve and need only material 
and increased encouragement by the mother 
Church. 



THE PREACHER'S RIGHTS 

FROM THE SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE 

As a matter of fact, the pastor has some rights. 
When a man enters into the ministry of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church he promises to serve 
any appointment to which he may be assigned, 
and he places himself and family in the hands of 
the appointing power. His social environments, 
the educational opportunities for his children, and 
the actual comforts of life, both for himself and 
family, depend upon what the presiding bishop 
and the cabinet say. And while the laity has the 
right to say what kind of a preacher it desires 
and how long he shall stay, has not the minister 
the right to declare the sort of church that will 
be pleasing to him? Is not the laity a little too 
intolerant in insisting upon the removal of the 










Group ii 



Rev. E. B. Burroughs, D.D. 
R. F. Boyd. A.M., M.D. 



S. D. Redmond, M.D. 
Frank Trigg, A.M. 



THE OUTLOOK 313 

preacher because he is not the ideal? We know 
of charges where pastors move at the end of two 
or three years, for no special reason whatever, 
but for the fact that the charge has never kept 
a preacher more than three years. The man 
may be a good preacher, an excellent pastor, a 
safe leader of the spiritual forces of the com- 
munity, and a success in the ingathering of the 
young people, and he may have so established 
himself that it will be inconvenient for him to 
move, and yet, simply for the sake of a change, 
his removal is demanded; he knows that the 
people desire him to leave, and therefore con- 
cludes it is better for him to do so than force 
opposition. On behalf of the preacher, who 
gives up no little to enter the ministry, we plead 
for tolerance. We solicit the wise judgment of 
the laity to the end that before a preacher is re- 
moved his case shall have a calm and dispas- 
sionate survey. Let the laity place itself in the 
position of the preacher and ask the question, 
"What would you like to have done if you were 
in the place of the preacher ?" In other words, 
simply put the Golden Rule into actual practice 
in determining as to whether the pastor shall 
return or go. Has the preacher no rights. Is 
not he entitled to consideration as well as the 
congregation? Is it of no concern that his fam- 
ily must be moved ? 



314 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

OUR SYSTEM OF MORALITY— IS IT 
PECULIAR? 

BY THE REV, W. H. NELSON, D.D. 

The Negro stands, lately emancipated, a young 
free man and citizen of the United States. He 
became a bondman without his consent, was made 
a free man by the will of others and an overruling 
Providence. Since his freedom and enfranchise- 
ment, his citizenship and liability, he has been on 
trial before his friends and his foes. His friends 
have confided in his ability and possibilities under 
fair chances; while, too often, his enemies have 
pronounced him a blank failure under any and 
all chances or circumstances. And this latter 
class declare that the Negro's greatest failure is 
found in his moral and ethical life. They claim 
that no amount of training on educational and 
religious lines is sufficient to develop the Negro 
and make him a system of morality that is com- 
parable with that of the Anglo-Saxon or other 
favored races. This class, then, say to his 
friends, "If the Negro is a hopeless moral failure 
it is useless and foolish to make any further out- 
put of money or labor on him than is absolutely 
necessary to teach him to labor to practical ad- 
vantage." And this undercurrent against the 
higher education of the Negro was based on the 



THE OUTLOOK 315 

presumption that the Negro's head was too 
thick, and therefore incapable of highest culture; 
but since such a claim has proven untenable it has 
more recently started out by saying that the prac- 
tice of higher culture does no moral good, and 
does not improve the Negro's moral standard. 
But those who set up such a claim do so unrea- 
sonably, in that they are too hasty. The Negro, 
it must not be forgotten, has had but a few brief 
years for moral and religious culture. And it 
must be remembered that mere literary training 
does not train any race sufficiently morally; and 
this moral culture requires time to develop any 
race as well as the Negro. But indeed can 
there not be found something groveling and 
peculiar in Negro morality? Why is he so 
lawless? Why get drunk, steal, lie, and do 
many things forbidden in all law, both civil and 
religious ? 

But the question also arises, Is any named sin 
here, or is any known sin anywhere, peculiar to 
the Negro ? Has he ever discovered a crime that 
he himself alone practiced? Were not his crimes 
(the most damaging) copied from other races? 
But other reasons why it might be clearly seen 
that the Negro is not peculiar in his moral make- 
up are : 

First, the Negro is divinely declared a man of 
the one human blood ; and humanity is the same 



316 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

the world over, and neither nationality, color, 
nor creed can change it. 

Second, the Negro has the same Bible, and he 
loves, believes in, and follows it as best he under- 
stands its laws. He is naturally religious, and 
believes in the religion and morality of the New 
Testament. 

Third, the Negro loves and is striving after 
those things which build up other races. Take 
the Negro as a lover of education. See how he 
toils for it and excels in acquiring it. Think 
of over thirty thousand teachers in his various 
schools, colleges, and universities of this country 
and Europe. Take him as a church worker, and 
time and space would fail me to present the mar- 
velous statistics of the last decade. Everything 
that ennobles any race finds seekers after and 
lovers of it in the Negro race. This article would 
not claim a single virtue for the Negro he does 
not deserve, and it will not yield an inch that the 
Negro is peculiarly less moral than any other 
race. The Negro has his shortcomings, his mis- 
erable failures, his everyday lawlessness, his 
abundant treachery ; but in none is he peculiar nor 
exclusively addicted. 

A fourth and last reason that the Negro is not 
morally peculiar is that he does not seek pecu- 
liarity and would not have it. Morally, the Negro 
should be treated as every other man. No favors 



THE OUTLOOK 317 

on that line should be shown him, and no less re- 
quired of him than any other man. For what is 
good for one race of men is good for all; and 
all should be fairly and squarely brought to the 
school of training and to the bar of justice. 



APPENDIX 



THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY 

The earliest work of the Society was done for 
the colored people. The Negro problem is still 
insistent, and only Christian training in civic 
duty and citizenship, together with a practical 
knowledge of the industrial arts, can solve it. 
This Society long ago recognized this fact and 
founded the following institutions, which have 
done and are doing an excellent work, turning 
out into the world Negro young girls with trained 
hands and endowed with those Christian virtues 
which are so fundamental in the building of 
character, both racial and individualistic. Then, 
too, it is gratifying that the colored people are 
contributing an increasing amount to the educa- 
tion and industrial training carried on in these 
schools : 

Thayer Industrial Home (allied to Clark University), 

Atlanta, Ga., 1883, Miss Flora Mitchell, Supt. 
Haven Industrial Home and Elementary School, Savannah, 

Ga., 1882, Miss Viola Baldwin, Supt. 
Speedwell Industrial Home and Elementary School, 

Speedwell, Ga., 1886, Miss Mary Troutner, Supt. 
Boylan Industrial Home, Elementary and Grammar 

School, Jacksonville, Fla., 1886, Miss Julia E. Waters, 

Supt. 

321 



322 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Brewster Hospital and Training School for Nurses, Jack- 
sonville, Fla., 1901, Mrs. Olive Webster, Supt. 

Faith Cottage Settlement, West Jacksonville, Fla., 1900, 
Mrs. Maggie H. Miller, Supt. 

Emerson Memorial Home and Elementary School, Ocala, 
Fla., 1891, Miss C. M. Buckbee, Supt. 

Allen Industrial Home and Asheville Academy, Ashe- 
ville, N C, 1887, Miss Alsie B. Dole, Supt. 

Browning Industrial Home and Mather Academy, Camden, 
S. C, 1887, Miss F. V. Russell, Supt. 

Kent Industrial Home (allied to Bennett College), Greens- 
boro, N. G, 1886, Mrs. Cora E. Colburn, Supt. 

New Jersey Conference Industrial Home (allied to Morris- 
town Normal College), Morristown, Tenn., 1892, Miss 
Louella Johnson, Supt. 

E. L. Rust Industrial Home (allied to Rust University), 
Holly Springs, Miss., 1884, Miss Ella Becker, Supt. 

Adeline Smith Industrial Home (allied to Philander Smith 
College), Little Rock, Ark., 1884, Mrs. Hilda M. 
Nasmith, Supt. 

Peck School of Domestic Science and Art (allied to New 
Orleans University, New Orleans, La.). Peck Home, 
burned 1897, will be rebuilt shortly. 

King Industrial Home (allied to Wiley University), 
Marshall, Tex., 1890, Mrs. L. A. Van Houten, Supt. 

Eliza Dee Industrial Home (allied to Samuel Huston 
College), Austin, Tex., 1903, Miss Clara I. King, Supt. 



THE WORK OF THE FREEDMEN'S AID 
SOCIETY 

The work of this department has been very 
fruitful indeed. Soon after emancipation the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, realizing that one 



APPENDIX 323 

of the hopes for the Negro race lay in education, 
began through this department her efforts of 
teaching the f reedmen at least the "three R's" ; 
then as the Negro showed fitness for a higher ^ 
type of education the Church gave it to him. 
Academies and colleges were founded, until to- 
day we owe the Freedmen's Aid Society an un- 
dying debt of gratitude for the following educa- 
tional institutions among our people : 

Value of 
Names of Institutions Founded Students Real Estate 

Theological 
Gammon Theological Seminary, 
Atlanta, Ga., Rev. S. E. Idle- 
man, D.D., Pres 1883 86 $108,000 

Collegiate 
Bennett College, Greensboro, N. 

C, Rev. S. A. Peeler, A.M., 

D.D., Pres 1873 243 60,000 

Claflin University, Orangeburg, S. 

C. Rev. L. M. Dunton, D.D., 

Pres 1867 548 194,520 

Clark University, Atlanta, Ga., 

Rev. S. E. Idleman, D.D., Pres. 1868 491 350,000 

George R. Smith College, Sedalia, 

Mo., A. C. Maclin, A.M., Pres.. 1894 W 5M67 

Morgan College, Baltimore, Md., 

J. O. Spencer, Ph.D., Pres 1867 604 125,000 

Philander Smith College, Little 

Rock, Ark., Rev. J. M. Cox, 

A.M., D.D., Pres 1868 659 47JOO 

Rust University, Holly Springs, 

Miss., William W. Foster, Jr., 

Ph.D., Pres 1869 362 125,000 



324 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Value of 
Names of Institutions Founded Students Real Estate 

Samuel Huston College, Austin, 

Tex., R. S. Lovinggood, A.M., 

Pres 1878 517 $60,000 

Virginia Collegiate and Industrial 

Institute, Lynchburg, Va., 

Frank Trigg, A.M., Prin 1882 ... 35,ooo 

Walden University, Nashville, 

Tenn., J. A. Kumler, D.D., Pres 1866 923 125,000 

Wiley University, Marshall, Tex., 

Rev. M. W. Dogan, A.M., 

Ph.D., Pres 1873 600 75,ooo 

Academic 

Alexandria Academy, Alexandria, 

La 1889 62 

Central Alabama College, Birming- 
ham, Ala., Rev. A. P. Camphor, 

A.M., D.D., Pres 1872-96 146 30,000 

Cookman Academy, Jacksonville, 

Fla., Rev. J. T. Docking, Ph.D., 

Pres 1873 437 3M9I 

Gilbert Academy, Baldwin, La., 

J. M. Matthews, A.M., Prin.. 1868 238 66,280 

Haven Academy, Waynesboro, 

Ga., E. T. Barksdale, A.M., Prin 1868 157 5,450 

LaGrange Academy, LaGrange, 

Ga 1870 150 5,500 

Meridian Academy, Meridian, 

Miss., J. B. F. Shaw, Ph.D., 

Prin 1878 250 15,000 

Morristown Academy, Morris- 
town, Tenn., Rev. J. S. Hill, 

A.M., D.D., Pres 1881 336 75,ooo 

Princess Anne Academy, Princess 

Anne, Md., Rev. T. H. Kiah, 

A.B., Prin .... 



APPENDIX 325 

OFFICIAL INFORMATION 

RESIDENCES AND ADDRESSES 
1. Bishops 

Thomas Bowman, 81 High Street, Orange, N. J. 

Henry W. Warren, University Park, Colo. 

John M. Walden, 220 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 

Willard F. Mallalieu, Auburndale, Mass. 

John H. Vincent, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Earl Cranston, Washington, D. C. 

David H. Moore, 220 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 

John W. Hamilton, 36 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass. 

Joseph F. Berry, 455 Franklin Street, Buffalo, N. Y. 

William F. McDowell, 57 Washington Street, Chicago, 

111. 
James W. Bashford, Peking, China. 
William Burt, Zurich, Switzerland. 
Luther B. Wilson, 1026 Arch Street, Philadelphia Pa. 
Thomas B. Neely, 631 Baronne Street, New Orleans, La. 
William F. Anderson, Chattanooga, Tenn. 
John L. Nuelsen, Omaha, Neb. 
William A. Quayle, Oklahoma City, Okla. 
Charles W. Smith, Portland, Ore. 
Wilson S. Lewis, Foochow, China. 
Edwin H. Hughes, 435 Buchanan Street, San Francisco, 

Cal. 
Robert McIntyre, Saint Paul, Minn. 
Frank M. Bristol, Buenos Ayres, Argentina, South 

America. 

2. Missionary Bishops 

James M. Thoburn, Meadville, Pa. 

Joseph C. Hartzell, Funchal, Madeira Islands. 

Frank W. Warne, Lucknow, India. 



326 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Isaiah B. Scott, Monrovia, Liberia. 

William F. Oldham, Singapore, Straits Settlements. 

John E. Robinson, Bombay, India. 

Merriman C. Harris, Seoul, Korea. 

3. Secretary of General Conference 
Joseph B. Hingeley, 57 Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 

4. Publishing Agents 

1. At New York 

Homer Eaton and George P. Mains: "Eaton & Mains," 
150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

2. At Cincinnati 

Henry C. Jennings and Edwin R. Graham : "Jennings 
& Graham," 220 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 

5. Editors 
I. Elected by the General Conference 

William V. Kelley, Methodist Review, 150 Fifth Avenue, 

New York. 
James M. Buckley, The Christian Advocate, 150 Fifth 

Avenue, New York. 
John T. McFarland, Sunday School Publications, 150 

Fifth Avenue, New York. 
John J. Wallace, Pittsburg Christian Advocate, 105 Fifth 

Avenue, Pittsburg, Pa. 
Levi Gilbert, Western Christian Advocate, 220 West 

Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 
Albert J. Nast, Der Christliche Apologete, 220 West 

Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 
Frederick Munz, Haus und Herd, 220 West Fourth 

Street, Cincinnati, O. 
Charles M. Stuart, Northwestern Christian Advocate, 57 

Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 



APPENDIX 327 

Claudius B. Spencer, Central Christian Advocate, 1121 

McGee Street, Kansas City, Mo. 
Robert E. Jones, Southwestern Christian Advocate, 631 

Baronne Street, New Orleans, La. 
Daniel L. Rader, Pacific Christian Advocate, Portland, 

Ore. 
Stephen J. Herben, The Epworth Herald, 57 Washington 

Street, Chicago, 111. 
Freeman D. Bovard, California Christian Advocate, 5-7 

City Hall Avenue, San Francisco, Cal. 

2. Elected by the Book Committee 

Richard J. Cooke, Book Editor, 150 Fifth Avenue, New 
York, and 220 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 

6. Corresponding Secretaries, etc. 

Adna B. Leonard, Board of Foreign Missions, 150 Fifth 
Avenue, New York. 

Homer C. Stuntz, First Assistant, 150 Fifth Avenue, New 
York. 

William W. Lucas, Field Agent, Meridian, Miss. 

Robert Forbes, Board of Home Missions and Church 
Extension, 1026 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Ward Platt, Assistant Secretary, 1026 Arch Street, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Charles M. Boswell, Assistant Secretary, 1026 Arch 
Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Isaac L. Thomas, Field Agent, 21 11 Druid Hill Avenue, 
Baltimore, Md. 

Thomas Nicholson, Board of Education, 150 Fifth Ave- 
nue, New York. 

David G. Downey, Board of Sunday Schools, 57 Wash- 
ington Street, Chicago, 111. 

Edwin Blake, Assistant Secretary, 57 Washington Street, 
Chicago, 111. 

Charles C. Jacobs, Field Agent, 37 Council Street, Sum- 
ter, S. C. 



328 METHODISM AND THE NEGRO 

Edward M. Jones, Field Agent, 420 South Union Street, 

Montgomery, Ala. 
Joseph B. Hingeley, Board of Conference Claimants, 57 

Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 
Madison C. B. Mason, Freedmen's Aid Society, 220 West 

Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 
Patrick J. Maveety, Freedmen's Aid Society, 220 West 

Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 
Edwin M. Randall, General Secretary Epworth League, 

57 Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 
I. Garland Penn, Assistant Secretary, South Atlanta, Ga. 

7. Treasurers 

Oscar P. Miller, General Conference, Rock Rapids, la. 

Homer Eaton, Board of Foreign Missions, 150 Fifth Ave- 
nue, New York. 

Samuel Shaw, Board of Home Missions and Church 
Extension, 1026 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Henry C. Jennings, Freedmen's Aid Society, 220 West 
Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. 

J. Edgar Leaycraft, Board of Education, 19 West Forty- 
second Street, New York. 

George P. Mains, Episcopal Fund, 150 Fifth Avenue, New 
York. 

Franklin J. Bodine, Chartered Fund, 129 South Fourth 
Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Marvin Campbell, Board of Conference Claimants, 57 
Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 

Edwin R. Graham, Board of Sunday Schools, 57 Wash- 
ington Street, Chicago, 111. 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 









